Accidental Betrothal
by SewingSlytherin
Summary: Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy met years before either of them went to Hogwarts. She might not have been his first choice for a friend, but he couldn't ask for a better one. Even if her parents were muggles.
1. Chapter 1

Trains had been a large fascination for a lot of children. Steam trains held a particular fascination for one Hermione Granger. And so, the Grangers often found themselves at the station, just watching the trains come and go.

Hermione was sitting and watching people board and disembark the trains while her mother sat on a nearby bench reading a book. Hermione was doing as best she could to draw a train as her five-year-old hands would let her. She was so absorbed in what she was doing that she nearly screamed when a blond boy sat down next to her.

"You shouldn't sneak up on people," she nearly squeaked.

"You can see me?" He looked astonished at that revelation.

"I'm not blind," Hermione said turning back to her sketchpad. Her drawing wasn't bad. It almost looked like the engine could start moving at any moment.

"You're not a muggle," the boy declared.

Hermione sighed and lowered her sketchpad. It seemed like he wouldn't let her be any time soon.

"I don't even know what that means," she said as evenly as she could. She wasn't sure she liked this boy, for all that he was intrigued by her.

He swung his legs back and forth, looking bashful. "Father says bad things about muggles," he admitted.

"You call your dad father?" Hermione asked. It was so formal, so strange. She hadn't heard any of her friends call their parents mother and father.

"What do you call your parents?" he responded in kind.

"Mum and Dad. Just like all my friends."

He paused, thinking about it. "Theo calls his father father as well. Blaise doesn't have a father. Just his mother."

"These are your friends?" Hermione asked. She felt a sudden pang of something for the boy he called Blaise. As if she wanted to scoop him up and take him home with her.

"The ones I like. Mother and Father want me to be friends with Pansy, but she's…" he trailed off and shuddered. "She only wants to play with me. And when we do play, she is always the princess and I have to be the prince. Sometimes I want to be the dragon."

"Well, if you want to play with me, you can be the dragon," Hermione said.

His face lit up. "My name means dragon. It's Draco, but that's Latin for dragon."

"I'm Hermione. It's Greek. Don't know what it means."

They shook hands, and Mrs. Granger came up at that moment, looking a little concerned.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Talking to Draco," Hermione said looking confused. "Can't you see him?"

Mrs. Granger shook her head. "Dear, there's no one there."

Hermione turned to Draco. "Why can't she see you?"

"Father put a notice me not spell on me so that the muggles wouldn't ask me questions. If she can't see me, then she's a muggle," he explained.

Hermione frowned. "What's a muggle?"

"Dear, don't make up words," Mrs. Granger said.

"I'm not. I was asking Draco what it meant," Hermione insisted.

Mrs. Granger sighed. If Hermione had developed an invisible friend, which seemed strange for her, there was little that she could do to dissuade her. Hermione was a fairly stubborn child, something she had inherited from her parents.

"A muggle is a non-magic person," Draco explained.

"And I'm not one," Hermione said.

"No, but your mother is one," Draco said. "Is your father a muggle too?"

"I think so," Hermione said. "He's never used any magic. We just do things the way that everyone else does. Well, maybe not everyone."

Mrs. Granger turned back to her book. It seemed as if Hermione had finally developed an imagination that went further than trains and people walking into walls. And she wasn't sure that she wanted to hear all her daughter's conversation. Especially since she only could hear half of it.

The two of them talked until a tall man, who also appeared to have a notice me not spell on him, came to collect Draco.

"Don't talk to the muggles," he said. "They can't hear you."

"But she's not a muggle Father," Draco said. "She can see and hear us."

"And she," Hermione said, "would appreciate it if you wouldn't talk about her while she's standing right here."

The blond man looked down at her. He considered her for a moment, almost looking at her as if she was a bug. "And who might you be?"

"Hermione Granger," she said. "It's nice to meet you."

She held out her hand for him to shake, and was surprised when he kissed it instead. He had to bend down quite a way, which amused her to no end.

"I haven't met your parents," he said.

"Well, my mum's over there," Hermione said pointing to where Mrs. Granger was trying to act as though her daughter's actions were totally normal.

"I take it she's a muggle," Draco's father said.

"Draco said so. She can't see you," Hermione admitted.

"Nothing to be ashamed of," Draco's father said. "Not everyone can come from a pureblooded magical family. And sometimes you would be surprised how powerful muggleborns are."

Draco looked confused. He whispered something to his father, clearly confused.

"Will you be here in the future, Miss Granger?" Draco's father asked.

"Sometime next week, if my mother agrees to it," she said. "I like to watch the trains."

"Then we shall see you soon. We'll send an owl inquiring your visit."

Hermione was curious. She'd never heard of anyone using an owl for what sounded like a telephone call. But she hid her confusion and thanked them before going over to her mother.

"Are you ready to go?" Mrs. Granger asked when Hermione walked over to her.

"I'm ready."

"And Draco isn't coming with us?"

Hermione shook her head. She wasn't sure what her mother thought, but she supposed it was hard to believe in something you couldn't see. "He went home with his dad."

Mrs. Granger breathed a sigh of relief. She tried to do so quietly, but she was sure that just about everyone around her saw and possibly heard her. It was hard enough to go along with an imaginary friend. It was much easier if they weren't around.

"What's for dinner?" Hermione asked.

* * *

A/N: So this is the new story that was brewing in my brain. I found it difficult to stop one it formed. Ahh. Hopefully I can keep up with these chapters. And I'm not sure if I'll start a new story for book two or not. (Probably not. It's easier to just keep it all in one spot.) We'll see.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a Wednesday when they met again. Draco had brought his own pad of paper, swiped off his father's desk. There was the familiar thrum of magic pulsing through it comforting him.

He sat down on the bench where they had first met, swinging his legs. He didn't have to wait long for her to arrive. She was there exactly a minute and a half after she said she would be.

"Hermione!" he called from the bench.

"Draco!" She ran forward and there was just enough time for him to jump down to the ground before she tackled him in a fierce hug.

"You're late," he teased.

"Am not. We got here right at three. It was just a bit of a walk across the station. You see all the people?"

They sat down, pads of paper out. Hermione sketched, sneaking peeks at Draco. Draco was doing is best to draw a train, but he lacked both practice and Hermione's natural skill. It looked much like anyone would expect a child's drawing of a train to look like.

"Can I see?" Draco asked after a while.

Hermione took a deep breath before turning her sketch pad around. She wasn't quite used to showing off her work, especially when it wasn't done. She had done a sketch of Draco, and it was almost too lifelike.

"This is amazing," he breathed. He almost swore he could see the picture wink at him. "Do your pictures normally move?"

Hermione blushed. "Only when they're almost perfect," she replied.

Draco looked at the sketch some more. "I think I'm going to need your signature. It'll be worth a fortune when you're the next famous artist."

"Show me yours first," Hermione insisted.

Draco turned the page of the pad, embarrassed by his clumsy attempt at drawing a train. He scrawled his name messily, but strangely elegant, on the page.

"Interesting name. Draco Lucius Malfoy," Hermione said. "Your parents certainly have an affinity for the unusual."

"It's a constellation. Most of my mother's family were named after stars or constellations."

"I still think it's unusual," Hermione said.

Draco smiled. He couldn't argue with her on that. It was a fairly unusual name, even considering his family's tendency to be ostentatious.

"Come on. I wrote mine. Now it's your turn."

Hermione took the pad of paper and wrote her name under Draco's. _Hermione Jean Granger._ It was exceedingly pretty, if a tad less elegant than Draco's.

She pulled her pen away from the page, and a light nearly blinded her. It enveloped both her and Draco. And after a moment, it settled into a warmth and then faded almost completely. She supposed the blindness would do the same after a few moments.

"Hermione," Mrs. Granger rushed forward, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Hermione said. "Mum. I'm fine."

"Draco," Mr. Malfoy drawled in the most menacing way possible, "did you take a notebook from my study?"

"Maybe," Draco said in a small voice.

"Who's this?" Mrs. Granger asked, seeing him for the first time.

"Mum, this is Draco," Hermione introduced him. "Draco, this is my mum."

Mrs. Granger was clearly shocked. She had assumed, incorrectly, that Draco was imaginary. She couldn't see him the first time Hermione had mentioned him, and had jumped to conclusions.

"I might be able to shed some light on the subject," Mr. Malfoy interjected.

"Thank you Mr…" Mrs. Granger trailed off. She didn't know his name.

"Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy."

"You're named after your father," Hermione hissed at Draco.

"Lots of people are," he whispered back.

"Well Lucius, you can call me Helena," Mrs. Granger said. "Now what was that light?"

The two adults sat down at a table where they could easily watch the children who had returned to the bench. Draco and Hermione seemed to get along just fine. There was some good-natured shoving, and a little bit of teasing, but those were the most contentious acts between them.

"You aren't exactly normal," Helena mused.

"Not for your world," Lucius agreed. "And to be frank, we're not exactly normal in our world either."

"You're going to have to explain that too," Helena said. "But, for now, let's start with the light."

Lucius sighed internally. The afternoon was not going the way he had planned at all. But he launched into the simplest explanation he could manage of the wizarding world and magic. He explained their position, and social customs.

"So, your notebook has 'betrothed' our children," Helena clarified. "They're five, and engaged."

"Irreversibly so," Lucius muttered.

"What am I supposed to do?" Helena asked.

Lucius frowned. He was unaccustomed to dealing with muggles at the best of times. Trying to explain betrothal customs, pureblood betrothal customs, was proving to be somewhat difficult. Helena Granger just didn't have the background to understand.

He needed to explain that this wasn't how things normally worked. This was ancient magic. But that was probably a conversation best saved for his wife and a time where this woman was less upset.

"For now, I think that setting up a weekly playdate for them will suffice," he suggested. "We can alternate who gets to host. But they should get used to spending time together."

Helena nodded. "Do you want next week then? Although, I have no idea where you live, or how to get there."

"Don't worry about that yet," Lucius told her. "I'll take care of the details for next week. I shall mail them to you over the weekend."

Helena nearly sagged with relief. She had no clue how to handle any of this surprise. And if the Malfoys wanted to take the next week, it would give her more time to think up something that might interest Draco. What did wizard children even like to do?

"Are you going to want me to come along? Or my husband?" she asked.

Lucius studied the woman in front of him. She was nervous, and understandably so. He couldn't fault her for being protective of her daughter. He was in a similar position himself.

"It would certainly be educational for both of you. I can assure you that my wife will be most excited to meet you."

They sat in awkward silence for a few moments, thoughts flitting through each of their heads. With everything that had happened that day, they were going to need quite a bit of time to process. It wasn't even suppertime and it felt as if the day had been exceedingly long.

"I think I should take Hermione home," Helena said after a moment. "She might not have realized it, but her whole life has changed. I'd like to keep what I can as normal as possible."

They stood.

"I couldn't agree more," Lucius told her.

* * *

A/N: So there seems to be a fair amount of support for this idea. Thank you. I'm really enjoying this story. Hope this chapter lives up to everyone's expectations.


	3. Chapter 3

Draco was super excited when it came time for Hermione's first weekly visit. Well, biweekly perhaps. But they were going to be spending at least one day a week with each other. But he was still excited enough to be singing and dancing, half dressed, while the elves and his mother tried to catch him.

He sang and ducked while they stumbled all to catch him. He was having the time of his life, and was just waiting until Hermione came so he could show her his new broom.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, you will get over here this instant," his mother said in frustration.

He knew that tone of voice, and knew it well. He shut his mouth, even if he still wanted to sing, and walked dejectedly over to where his mother was standing.

She tucked his feet into socks and pulled his robes on properly. "You need to be dressed nicely in order to show Miss Granger how wizards are supposed to act."

Draco took a deep breath and nodded. He didn't like robes. But he knew that his parents were counting on him to show Hermione how to behave. And how to dress. Once she knew the basics, maybe they would let him go back to shorts and such.

The doorbell rang and Draco took off running for the door, his mother following closely behind him muttering to herself. The door had been opened when they got there, and Hermione and her mother had just given Bitsy, one of their elves, their coats.

"Draco," Hermione called. "I can't believe you live here. It's so big."

Mrs. Malfoy smiled at her. "It can be a little big. Especially when it's just the three of us."

"And the elves," Draco reminded his mother.

"I have to ask about those," Mrs. Granger said.

"Draco, why don't you take Miss Granger outside to the gardens. We'll be along shortly."

Draco nodded. "Come on. You can see my new broom."

They hurried outside, nearly tripping over the smooth floors more than once. Draco shed his robes when they were outdoors, leaving it in a pile near the door.

"I was wondering," Hermione said. "Why were you wearing that?"

"Mother said so," Draco rolled his eyes. "She says that it's our job to teach you how to be the best witch ever."

"So all witches wear robes? Do wizards wear them too?" Hermione asked. Her curiosity was piqued, and she wasn't sure she could let something like that go unanswered.

"Father says that wizards should wear robes when they can be trusted not to go running off and getting them messy or torn," Draco recited.

"He sounds smart."

"He is. He's the smartest wizard ever. Even if he says that Dumb-door is the smartest wizard since Merlin."

"Merlin's real?" Hermione was in shock. She'd heard of King Arthur. Everyone had. It was sort of a part of being British. But no one thought he was real.

"Of course he's real," Draco said. "Now come on."

He led her to a shed, where he opened the door. Inside were broomsticks of all shapes and sizes. Most of them were locked up. Only two weren't. They were both about the right size for Hermione or Draco to ride them.

"So you ride these?"

Draco shook his head. "Mother and Father ride the big ones. Father says when I'm big enough he'll teach me how to ride a real broom. But, I'm not big enough. And Mother freaks out when I go more than a few feet off the ground."

"I think my mum would do the same thing," Hermione admitted.

Draco picked up both unlocked brooms and handed one to Hermione before they left the shed. "That one won't go very high, if you're worried."

Hermione relaxed a little. She had been nervous that Draco was going to put her on a broom and then fly her away higher than she was ready for. She still wasn't comfortable with the idea of flying on a stick, but it was a lot less scary when it wasn't going to go very high.

"Are you sure it's safe?" she asked.

"Dobby's waiting if there's trouble," Draco told her. "We aren't going to let anything happen to you."

Hermione took the broom in her hand. She was still nervous, but she guessed that was normal. She had only known about magic for a fortnight. It was natural to be suspicious of something you hadn't known existed.

Draco helped her sit on it, and then it rose gently. They only went up a few inches the first time. They landed, doing this several times. Draco was aware of how scared he had been the first time he had been on a broom. And he'd been excited before they started.

Hermione hadn't known it was a thing. She hadn't grown up with quidditch. She probably had never heard of it, he guessed. And so, she hadn't ever thought about riding on a broom.

"This is actually kind of fun," Hermione said after a few times of just hovering.

"Do you want to try moving?" Draco asked.

Hermione bit her lip, still a little nervous, but nodded. "Just not too fast," she said.

Draco looked at her. "Hermione, these are toy brooms. They don't go fast. Maybe about as fast as you can run."

Hermione looked down at the broom. "I didn't know."

"It's okay. I don't think you have anything like these at your house," Draco said.

"We don't."

They flew for about another half hour before their mothers were at the veranda. Mrs. Malfoy nearly screeched when she found Draco's robe discarded on the stones.

"He wasn't wearing that when we met him at the train station," Mrs. Granger said.

"No. Lucius has ideas about Draco wearing clothes that fit him. And muggle clothes seem to be the best choice for children. Especially with his tendency to get into trouble," Mrs. Malfoy said.

"Mummy, I flew," Hermione cried as she ran up the steps. "Draco has brooms and I flew."

"Actually," Mrs. Malfoy said, "one of those brooms is for you. Draco has one, as do all his friends."

"Not Pansy," Draco muttered.

"Pansy doesn't like flying," Mrs. Malfoy said. "It doesn't mean that her parents haven't at least tried to get her on a broom."

"Who's Pansy?" Hermione asked.

"Pansy Parkinson," Draco mumbled. "Father wants me to be friends with her. But she's mean."

"Oh," Hermione's face lit up with recognition. "She's the girl who wants you to be the prince when you want to be the dragon."

Mrs. Malfoy smiled. "Pansy has ideas about what everyone should do."

"Does this mean she won't like me?" Hermione asked nervously. "Draco says that some of his friends don't like muggles and witches like me who's mum and dad are muggles."

Mrs. Malfoy knelt down. "Hermione, you are a brilliant witch. And she has no reason to dislike you, except that you're friends with Draco now. She's going to be a little jealous."

"Oh." That made sense. "Come on Draco. I'll be the knight and you can be the dragon."

They raced off to play. Their mothers watched them, so aware of the changes that would happen.

* * *

A/N: I feel like I have a million and one things to do. And instead of doing them, I'm writing fanfiction. Smart.


	4. Chapter 4

Hermione was more nervous about Draco coming over to visit their house than he had been. He had only shown excitement. And as great as he had been about it, his house had only caused her more worry.

She might have only been five, but she knew that her parents weren't poor. She wasn't quite sure what poverty was, but it sounded bad. But Draco's house had been huge. And his mother had said that there was more space than they used.

The biggest problem Hermione had was that Draco had given her a broom. Sure, it didn't go very high, but they couldn't use it in her back yard. There wasn't much space back there. And there was the fact that her neighbours could potentially see them.

She was pacing the hallway outside her room nervously when her mother checked on her.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Don't know," Hermione muttered. "What do we even have that wizards would like?"

Mrs. Granger shook her head. She hardly ever knew what to do with her daughter. Since her betrothal, unexpected as it might have been, she had found the situation even more difficult to handle. And it wasn't just that she had to entertain Draco for an afternoon.

"At least you cleaned up your room," Mrs. Granger said.

"Not like Draco will even be in there anyway," Hermione huffed under her breath.

"Oh, he might not be. But you'll be glad it's all done when we get back."

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked. Her mood lightened considerably. If her mother was planning on taking them out, there was probably more of a chance Draco would enjoy it.

Mrs. Granger smiled. "That's for me to know. You and Draco get to find out at the same time."

Hermione pouted. She looked rather cute, and she knew it. Thankfully, it was made easier to avoid giving in by the doorbell ringing. Hermione gasped, her face paling a little, but she ran to the door anyways.

"Draco, you made it," Hermione cried when she opened the door.

"Your house wasn't hard to find," Draco said.

Narcissa Malfoy smiled at Draco's words, but gently shook her head. "Just because you didn't do the apparating doesn't mean that it wasn't hard to find. The first time," she muttered.

"How was the trip?" Helena asked. "I hope it was better than that portal key thing you sent us."

"Portkeys can be a nasty experience," Narcissa agreed. "Apparating is much less discombobulating."

"What's appirating?" Hermione asked Draco.

"It's disappearing from one place, and then reappearing in another," he whispered to her. "Still makes you sick."

"Ugh," Hermione moaned. "Sounds horrid."

Draco shrugged. "You get used to it. Mother and Father don't like to use portkeys or floo powder if they don't have to."

"If you two are done whispering, we'll be going," Mrs. Granger said to the children.

"Where are we going?" Draco asked.

"We're going to the zoo," Mrs. Granger said.

Hermione got excited. "Are we taking the tube?"

"No. Your father has agreed to let us take his car."

"No way!"

Hermione started dancing around the living room. Her dad never let anyone drive his car. For them to take the car to the zoo meant that he really wanted things to go well.

They all climbed into the car. Draco and Hermione were eager. And the fact that Draco had never been in a car before didn't seem to faze him in the slightest. It did faze Narcissa.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked nervously.

"Sit down," Helena told her.

Narcissa sat down. She was still nervous. Whatever contraption the car was, she didn't feel safe.

Helena helped her fasten the seatbelt, and then they were off. Hermione and Draco almost bounced the whole ride. And they giggled incessantly, over what no one was sure.

They arrived, and Draco and Hermione ran off to look at the animals. Helena and Narcissa followed, though much slower.

"I have to say that wasn't totally horrible," Narcissa said. "I don't like it, but it isn't the worst way to travel."

Helena chuckled. "I would have to give that title to the portkey thing."

Narcissa nodded. "They are rather despicable things. But if you need to transport a large group of people, they can be very useful."

They followed Draco and Hermione while the toured the zoo. Hermione showed Draco her favourite exhibits and told him some of the facts that she knew. Trains weren't the only thing Hermione had an interest in. She liked to know everything.

Before long, they were back in the car, heading back to the Grangers' house. Draco and Hermione were still talking. But the biggest difference was that Narcissa had calmed down. She rode all the way back without a problem.

Narcissa and Helena sat in the living room while Draco and Hermione went out to the backyard to play. They were just running around screaming and laughing. Neither of their mothers were sure what they were up to. But they were having fun.

Eventually Helena and Narcissa walked outside. They found Hermione and Draco on the ground, looking up at the clouds. They were finding shapes, and still giggling about them. It was quite a sight to see.

"It's a dragon," Hermione insisted.

"It's not a dragon. It's obviously a wyren," Draco argued with her.

Their mothers exchanged glances. They had no idea what can of worms had just been opened. Or perhaps it was a can of wyrms.

Hermione rolled over and pushed herself up onto her arms. "Draco, it has legs and wings. That's a dragon."

Draco huffed, sitting up. "Two legs and two wings is a wyren. Four legs and two wings is a dragon."

"I think your cloud is blowing away," Mrs. Granger interjected. She hated to see them fighting, as amusing as it was.

They looked up.

"Aww. I liked that one," Hermione said.

Draco shrugged. "There will be more clouds. Come on." He pulled her up and headed over to his mother.

Narcissa handed him a wrapped package, which he turned and handed to Hermione. She tore into it with vigor.

"You really shouldn't do that," Helena whispered. "We didn't even get anything for Draco."

Narcissa waved her off. "You don't have to. We have more than enough. And it's nice to see Draco so excited to get something for a friend. And this is something that just about every wizarding child has. It's just a book of our fairy tales."

Helena thought about it. She couldn't refuse a gift such as that. She wasn't thrilled about the broomstick, but it did have to stay at the Malfoys' house anyway. But there wasn't a good reason that she could cut Hermione off from something that was intrinsically part of her.

"I suppose that's fine," she conceded.

Hermione had just finished looking at the book, and she hugged Draco. It almost looked like she was going to squish him.

"I think she liked it," Narcissa said.

"It's a book. Of course she did."

* * *

A/N: Yep. I have no social life whatsoever. (Well, not much of one anyways.) I keep writing. And there's just so much going on in my head. And I started reading a book. And I'm sewing more. Maybe it's a good thing I don't have a social life. I don't have time for one.


	5. Chapter 5

It was about a month after their first playdate, for lack of a better term, when Helena and John Granger received a note from the Malfoys asking if Hermione would like to come to a gathering of children around her and Draco's age. They looked at the note, each other, and the owl it had arrived with.

"It would be good for her," Helena said.

John shook his head. "She already spends one day a week with that boy. She doesn't need to spend more time with him."

Helena sighed. She loved her husband, but he didn't understand. Of course, he hadn't taken off time from the practice to meet the Malfoys. And she was nervous about how everyone would react. All of them, including Draco and Hermione, were stubborn.

"She's going to wind up married to him," Helena said. "I know you don't think it's a good idea, but them being friends is better in the long run."

She knew it was right. They couldn't control the future. But each choice had a consequence. And when Hermione and Draco had signed that paper they had unknowingly created a contract that they couldn't get out of. And Lucius Malfoy looked like he would have tried if it was possible.

"I still don't like it," John Granger said.

"I'm not asking you to like it. Just to let her go. Besides, she'll ask you with those big puppy dog eyes of hers."

John pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't say no to Hermione most of the time, and when she pouted it was even worse. She wasn't spoilt. But she did have her dad wrapped around her finger.

"Fine," he conceded. "She can go. But I want to meet the Malfoys."

"I would expect nothing less."

* * *

"Hermione!" Draco cried when they showed up. "You're here!"

"Of course I am. You invited me," she said.

"Mother said that your father didn't like the idea of you coming," he whispered to her. "I was worried he might stop you from visiting."

Hermione giggled. "Mummy wouldn't let him say no. As if he could."

They giggled together, and made it over to where the other children were playing. Daphne Greengrass was trying to convince Pansy Parkinson that they didn't have to be princesses.

"We can be just as good knights as the boys," she insisted.

"But we should be princesses," Pansy whined. "We're just as great as them."

"Why can't you be both?" Hermione asked. "Boys get to be princes and knights. Why can't you do the same?"

"Why, because I'm not about to get messy." Pansy flounced off.

"Thank Merlin she's gone," Daphne sighed. "I can't stand it when she gets like that."

"She's always like that," Draco said. "It's Pansy. She can't help it."

"I think she's got some ideas that she didn't come up with," Hermione mused. "She wants to be a princess, and she thinks that she isn't one now."

Draco and Daphne looked at Hermione. Both of them were confused.

"One of my friends from my neighbourhood does that," she attempted to explain.

"Do you want to be a lady knight?" Daphne asked. "It sounds pretty fun."

"Sure, Draco can be the dragon."

"Why do I have to be the dragon?" Draco fake moaned.

"Because your name means dragon," Hermione sang as she and Daphne pulled him away to play.

"They seem to be getting along quite well," Narcissa said. "I was hoping she would like Daphne. There aren't usually a lot of girls at these things, but Daphne is much nicer than Pansy."

John scoffed. "I thought you weren't supposed to speak ill of other people's children."

Narcissa smiled slyly. "Perhaps not, but I doubt that Pricilla would argue with me."

"You talking about Pansy again?" a woman who must have been Pricilla Parkinson said. She was tall, somewhat angular, and had a sharp black bob. She looked like she would have been comfortable as a flapper.

"Just remarking that Daphne will be more patient teaching Hermione the traditions that she won't learn at home," Narcissa said. "It's not the fault of anyone, but Pansy isn't a patient child."

"Of course not," Pricilla said. "She takes too much after her mother."

The lady downed her cup of tea and strode of into one of the other rooms where Mrs. Greengrass was sitting.

"That was unexpected," Helena said.

"I'll say," John added. "I wasn't under the impression that you were allowed to speak negatively about children."

"Not where they can hear us," Narcissa said. "They gossip as bad as any group of adults. Possibly even worse. But we all need to vent at times. And since Draco is now 'off the market' they've stopped building up their daughters to me. Quite refreshing actually."

John paused. "You mean to tell me that you betroth your children off normally. That what happened with my daughter wasn't an anomaly."

Narcissa shook her head. "No. That was unusual. We usually wait until they're at least twelve or thirteen. They are expected to have a say in the matter. If they can't stand each other, they shouldn't be married."

"At least we can agree on that," John muttered.

"Go talk to Lucius," Helena prodded. "He's much better at explaining things than either me or Cissa. And he'll explain why they're betrothed, and how much he would love to break the arrangement if he could."

John headed off to the study, and Helena sat down on one of the ancient sofas. She took a cup of tea from a serving tray, and stirred it absentmindedly. While she had been to the manor a few times, it never ceased to amaze her.

"What are you thinking about?" Narcissa asked.

Helena sat the cup down on the saucer in her hands. "I guess it's just overwhelming seeing my daughter seem to grow up before my eyes. It's only been a month, but there's so much that's happened."

"I guess it's easier for us. After all, we knew this would happen sooner or later. We just thought it would be much later, and that we would be more involved in the process," Narcissa explained. "It's been the way things have worked for centuries."

Helena pursed her lips. "Do all wizarding families betroth their children off?"

Narcissa shook her head. "No. Most of what we would call 'respectable' families do. But most wizarding families are at least part muggle, and have taken muggle dating to be the standard. And it might be better. But Lucius would never have agreed to it."

Helena gave a slight nod of her head. She knew that Lucius was a traditionalist. If it hadn't been for ancient magic binding Draco and Hermione together, they would never have even been given a chance. And as much as she hated to admit it, she liked that something had been taken away from him.

* * *

Hermione found that she loved playing with other wizarding children. Theodore Nott was fun, even if he did seem to think she was strange. And he said that her hair wasn't pretty. Draco said that her hair was the prettiest he had ever seen.

Hermione found she like Daphne, even if she thought her younger sister Astoria was strange. But since she went by Story most of the time, she couldn't hate her. It was a beautiful name.

She didn't like Pansy, and Pansy didn't like her. She didn't know why. It wasn't as though they had met before. But she couldn't like someone who seemed to be so rude to people. And it wasn't just Hermione. It was everyone.

But for the most part, Hermione liked Draco's friends. But she was glad when it was time to go home. She wanted to draw, see if she could get Pansy's scowl just right. And she wanted some quiet. Sometimes she just needed to be left alone.

"Did you have fun?" Helena asked her daughter.

"Yes. I really liked it when Daphne and I saved Pansy from the boys. They were dragons."

Helena found that she couldn't help but laugh. Of course her daughter would do something so unusual in a group of children of traditionalists. Of course she would.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for making you guys wait. I've been busy. And next week I'm going to Florida. Disney world and Universal studios. I'm super excited. But I won't be updating much.


	6. Chapter 6

Draco's sixth birthday was a big affair. Each birthday had been, but Hermione hadn't been to any of them before. She looked around what was the ballroom. It was decorated in bright colours, and more decorations than a party store.

Hermione stood nervously in the entrance. Her present was clutched in her hands, and she was very aware of the fact that the wrapping wasn't as pristine as his other gifts. One of the disadvantages of doing it herself.

"Hermione!" Draco rushed to her and gave her a hug. "You made it."

"Of course I did, silly," she smiled as she talked. "It's your birthday. I wouldn't miss it." She lowered her voice a little. "I think your mother would hate me if I did."

Draco walked with her into the room. "She wouldn't hate you. She was a little upset that Daphne missed it last year, but she was sick. And she likes you more than she likes Daphne."

"I like Daphne," Hermione said as she handed Draco his gift to put on the table.

"I do too," Draco insisted. "But I think you're my best friend."

"You just say that because we see each other more than everyone else."

He shook his head. He looked at the gift in his hands. "You did this by yourself." It wasn't a question.

She nodded, feeling the blood rush to her face. "I didn't want Mum or Dad to see what I got you."

Draco smiled. "All these," he gestured to the pile of gifts, "were picked by people's parents and wrapped by the elves. No one else did it all themselves. And this is why you're my best friend."

Hermione looked down at her feet shyly. But she couldn't keep the smile from her face. It always made her stomach feel warm when Draco said things like that. She couldn't explain it, but she enjoyed his praise.

"Thanks," she muttered.

"Hermione," Daphne cooed. "It's so good to see you. I have to show you something."

"See you later," Hermione called over her shoulder as Daphne pulled her away.

They hurried across the hall to where it appeared that a magical bouncy house had been erected. Hermione stood there, in awe.

"Come on," Daphne said. "We've never had one of these at a party before."

Hermione didn't say anything. She simply walked forward, climbing into the bouncy house. Inside was Pansy, Astoria, and Theo. They were bouncing around, having a great time.

"Mione, Daph, you're here," Theo said as he bounced over to them.

Daphne rolled her eyes. "Astoria's here. I would be too."

"You missed last year," Pansy said. "I know you were sick, but you're here now."

"Well, I'm not sick this year." Daphne was getting mildly frustrated. "Can we please drop it."

"Fine," Pansy said.

Astoria bounced over. "Daphne, come play with me."

Daphne bounced with her sister, pulling Hermione into the game. Soon everyone, save Pansy, was giggling and having fun. Even Theo was laughing.

Hermione found that she had to leave after a while. She was tired, and wanted a drink of water. She exited the bouncy house to find herself standing next to Vincent and Greg. They weren't the meanest, but they didn't talk much.

"Hey Greg, Vince," she said.

"Hey Mione," Greg said. "Draco wants to talk to you."

"Did he say why?" she asked.

Vincent shrugged. "No."

"Okay then," Hermione muttered. She stalked over to where Draco was talking with Blaise while sitting on the floor.

"Hermione," Blaise said brightly.

"Hey Blaise," Hermione smiled and then turned her attention to Draco. "You wanted to talk to me?"

"Daphne pulled you away before we could talk about those giant lizards from a million years ago you promised to tell me about," he said, perhaps a little petulantly.

"Dinosaurs," Hermione supplied.

"Are they like dragons?" Blaise asked.

Hermione smiled. She loved it when she knew things that other people didn't. Mostly because then she could tell them about it. But she wasn't opposed to learning things either. It was one of the reasons that she and Draco were good friends.

"Well, maybe. Dinosaurs have been dead for millions of years," she explained.

"Then how do we know they existed?" Blaise asked.

"The foss-el thing, right?" Draco interjected.

Hermione nodded. "Fossils are bones that have turned into rocks. And we can put the skeletons together and see what they might have looked like."

"Cool," Blaise said.

They talked about dinosaurs until Daphne came and made her eat cake with her. She said that Hermione was the only girl who didn't annoy her to no end.

"You have a sister," Blaise said.

"And your point is?" Daphne asked. "She's still annoying."

* * *

Mrs. Granger was sipping on her tea, mostly to give her something to do, while Mrs. Greengrass talked about something that she didn't understand. Mrs. Granger wasn't as familiar with the wizarding world, which wasn't exactly a disadvantage most of the time.

"But they've not invited Astoria over as much as they used to," Mrs. Greengrass complained.

"She is a year younger than Draco," Mrs. Granger said. "Without Daphne, I'm not sure they'd get along well." She didn't say that even with Daphne around they might get along.

"They were talking about preliminary betrothal arrangements," Mrs. Greengrass continued. "And now, all of a sudden, they've just been dropped."

"Perhaps Draco has indicated a preference." Mrs. Granger was getting uncomfortable. She knew exactly why the Malfoys would have dropped those discussions. And it was partly her fault, though no one could blame her for her daughter doing something binding without knowing it.

"I doubt it," Mrs. Greengrass said. "He's not quite to the point where he would have been told they were considering it. I know these things aren't usually finalized until Hogwarts, but if they changed their plans, they could tell us."

Helena Granger shuffled on her feet nervously. She couldn't say anything. She hadn't told anyone what had happened, her husband not included. She couldn't say anything. And it wasn't her place. She was going to leave that to Mrs. Malfoy.

"There you are," Narcissa said when she found Mrs. Granger and Mrs. Greengrass.

"I need to speak with you," Mrs. Greengrass said. "When the party is over. Or perhaps, maybe Charles could talk to Lucius."

Narcissa did a very good job of hiding her ruffled feathers. Helena wasn't even sure that she would have noticed if they hadn't been meeting weekly for the past few months.

"I see no reason why that can't be arranged. Mr. Granger is meeting with him now but as soon as they're done I'll be sure to let Lucius know."

* * *

A/N: So first things first, the story part of this was exactly 1,111 words long. Which I thought was cool. But that's probably just me.

Florida was beyond awesome! Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley were my favourite parts of the trip. The Incredible Hulk ride was my favourite. I found out that I love roller coasters. Wasn't expecting that. But they were so much fun. And I did like sneaking up the elevators (with cast permission since I'm a part time wheelchair user and took it because there would have been too much walking otherwise) and cutting in line. Disney World was definitely geared towards younger kids. Not a bad thing, but we didn't have any with us. My youngest sibling is twelve. And no one has kids.


	7. Chapter 7

September rolled around, and with it came Hermione's sixth birthday. Her party was a much more lax affair than Draco's. The Malfoys were invited, along with most of the rest of the Grangers' neighbourhood.

Aside from Mr. Malfoy's hair, they looked remarkably muggle. They managed to blend in with the Grangers' friends, though they looked very well dressed. Hermione stared for a moment, unused to seeing Mr. Malfoy in anything but robes. Trousers were a bit of a shock.

She managed to wrench her gaze from Mr. Malfoy and focus on Draco. He looked much the same as always, dressed in a shirt and trousers suitable for running around and playing with friends. The main difference was that he held a box that seemed to be as large as he was.

"You're here!" she cried slamming into him with a hug just a few seconds after her mother had taken the present from him.

"Of course I did." Draco puffed out his chest as much as he could for only being six. "You didn't think I was going to let my best friend celebrate her birthday without me?"

"I didn't know Pansy was here," Hermione teased.

Draco glowered at her. Pansy had been infinitely more bearable since she had met Hermione, but Draco still preferred even Astoria to her. And no one their age really liked Astoria. She was too young.

As Hermione broke down into giggles, Draco's frown faltered. He knew that Hermione was teasing him. She was rather transparent when it came to teasing him. But, that might have been for his benefit. He wasn't sure.

"Come on. Let me introduce you to everyone," Hermione said. She dragged Draco over to where everyone else was congregating.

They were planning a game of hid and seek. Hermione wasn't sure where everyone would hide. There weren't that many places to hide in her house, let alone the yard. Malfoy manor had so many more convenient hiding spots.

"How do you play?" Draco asked.

Hermione was taken aback. With all the hiding places in his house, she would have thought it would have been a regular game. It just seemed so natural.

"One person counts to twenty and the rest hide," Hermione explained. "The goal is to be the last one hiding."

"Can we hide in the house?" a short mousy looking girl by the name of Emily asked.

Hermione shook her head. "Not a good idea. My mum wouldn't like it."

"Did she do the thing where she makes you clean your room even though no one's going to see it?"

Hermione nodded. While she was a tidy person by nature, she would have much rather just locked the door to her room and spent the time having fun instead. But most mothers were particular about cleaning before guests came over. No one was surprised by that.

"Alright then," a boy with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes said. Draco thought he had heard the name Jason tossed around. "We'll just have to be really good at hiding then."

A lanky boy, half a head taller than Draco was picked to count and seek. His name was Ethan, and he was around eight. He would likely find everyone quickly. The parents at least were hoping so.

There was a flurry of activity as children hurried to hide. They ducked under tables, hid behind parents and chairs, and scrambled into some of the less prickly bushes.

Hermione grabbed Draco's hand and pressed them into the side of the house. She held a finger to her lips signaling for Draco to be quiet. He did as directed, though thoroughly confused.

"Twenty."

The hunt was on. Draco watched in amazement as the seeker passed by them time and time again. He found other children easily. Admittedly, everyone was fairly conspicuous. But Hermione and he were the most conspicuous of all. At least to him.

NO one seemed to notice them. Not her parents. Not his parents. Not any of the children playing. Draco even got the feeling that if he let go of Hermione's hand he would lose sight of her as well. Reflexively he gave her hand a small squeeze instead.

When everyone else had been found, Hermione pulled Draco from the wall. Whatever magic she had been working, for that was the only thing it could be, stopped.

"Dang Hermione," Ethan said. "I wish I knew your secret for hiding so well. The one you showed to the new guy here."

Hermione smirked. "Magic."

The children and parents of everyone else laughed. Neither Draco nor his parents were sure why it was so funny. Mr. and Mrs. Granger looked mortified that Hermione would dare to joke about something like that.

"How about some cake?" Mrs. Granger attempted to gain some control over the situation.

There were a few cheers from some of the kids. Hermione wasn't sure if she should be excited for the cake, or upset that the games had been cut short. She mulled it over in her mind up to the point where the cake was brought out.

It was shaped like a sketchpad with a frosting outline of one of Hermione's own self portrait sketches. The curly hair and posture made it clear to everyone who knew her, in spite of the simplicity of it.

"Wow," Draco said.

His cake had been large and ornate. "Befitting of his station" had been words used to describe it. Hermione's cake might not have been as large or half as fancy, but it looked like it had been picked with her in mind. Not who she was supposed to be.

For what was not the first time, nor was it likely to be the last, Draco was glad to call Hermione his friend. She didn't care that he was a pureblood scion. She didn't care about his money. And she didn't like him because her parents wanted her to.

If anything, it seemed to be the other way around. Hermione like him. Her parents were doing their best, but they were still trying to come to terms with the world that Draco had brought with him. Suddenly magic had entered their lives.

Draco was shaken out of his thoughts by singing. He joined in. The song had managed to transcend the boundaries of the wizarding and muggle worlds. Perhaps it was because people like Hermione existed.

Hermione screwed up her face, concentrating on her wish, before she blew out the candles. There were only six, making it easy enough for them all to be snuffed out. However, with the ease that Hermione used magic, they likely would have all been extinguished even if there were a hundred of them.

The cake was chocolate. Everyone got a piece and soon enough all the children had chocolate covered faces. Even Hermione, with all her propensity towards tidiness, had streaks of chocolate on her cheeks. Draco was even less neat.

There were a few more games after that. All of them were adult supervised. Neither the Grangers nor the Malfoys wanted what had happened during hide and seek to happen again. Draco wouldn't have minded, but he wasn't about to argue with his parents. Especially around people who wouldn't understand.

Eventually it was time for everyone to leave. Hermione and her parents thanked everyone for coming as they went home. Before long it was just Draco and his parents left.

"We're still on for this Saturday?" Mr. Granger asked.

"I do have to see what you love about this 'rugby,'" Mr. Malfoy answered. "Draco's looking forward to it."

"Hermione doesn't particularly like rugby, but she's looking forward to the game as well."

"Dad," Hermione whined, "you aren't supposed to tell all my secrets."

Mr. Granger laughed. "Sorry sweetheart. I didn't know it was a secret."

"It's okay," Hermione said. "Just don't do it again."

She looked so stern that both of her parents were fighting to keep themselves composed. It wouldn't do for them to laugh in her face, even if it was at the absurdity of the situation. Especially since it was her birthday.

* * *

A/N: So in this universe, Hermione is younger than Draco. And we'll address the whole Hogwarts thing later. I'm thinking of skipping until the next year, but that probably won't happen. I need to get that rugby match in. And I'm writing what happened in the meeting with Lucius and Mr. Granger. But it won't get put in this story. I'll probably publish it as a one shot.


	8. Chapter 8

Draco watched in awe as the rugby match was played. They were close enough that he could see clearly, but far away enough that Hermione was relaxed. She still winced every time that someone got tackled. Draco had no doubt that if they were closer she would have been a nervous wreck.

"This is so cool," he said.

"Even cooler than quidditch?" Hermione asked.

Draco shook his head. "Quidditch players can fly."

Hermione laughed. She hadn't expected Draco to agree with her teasing question. In even her mind, quidditch was much cooler than rugby. Flying sports were practically in another category from muggle ones.

"I must admit," Lucius drawled, "this sport is rather entertaining."

"I guess that muggles can do something right," John Granger said.

"More than just something," Lucius said. "Your daughter has opened our eyes to a world that we ignored because we didn't understand. I'm ashamed to say that if it weren't for Hermione, I might have gone my whole life without realizing my mistake."

"Honestly Lucius," John said, "I keep thinking this isn't real. That I'm dreaming or that Hermione is playing a joke on me. Or something. But then, something always happens where I have to admit that everything is real again."

Lucius chuckled. "Guess we're just two old men stuck in their ways. And our children, without meaning to, took it upon themselves to open our eyes."

"You make it sound like Romeo and Juliet."

"Perhaps," Lucius shrugged. "At least we're smarter than old Capulet and Montague."

They watched the teams scrimmage for a few more moments in peace. Well, as much peace as anyone could experience at a rugby match.

"Do you think I could learn to play?" Draco asked.

"I don't know Draco," John said curiously. "Do you think your father will let me teach you?"

Draco looked up at his father, silently supplicating for the chance to learn the sport. Lucius, who had never really said no to his son, found it impossible to say not to the pleading look on Draco's face. Instead he shifted the question.

"Only if Hermione agrees to learn how to play quidditch," he negotiated.

Hermione, though gaining confidence on a broom, had never been as enthusiastic about quidditch as Draco. Which was likely normal, since Draco was obsessed with the sport. But his attention did frequently shift, as evidenced by his desire to play rugby.

Hermione looked at Draco. "Sure," she agreed. "It could be fun."

She wasn't sure about that at all. As far as she was concerned, she wasn't sure that she would ever play quidditch for more than just fun with friends. But Draco would be so disappointed if she said no. She couldn't do that to him.

Draco smirked. He loved quidditch. Absolutely loved it. And he was fairly sure that Hermione would also love it. It just might take a while, a good long while if her first flight was anything to go by, to get her used to playing.

Hermione was a decent flyer. She was incredibly good if everything was taken into consideration. Muggle parents and a fear of heights were both reason that some magical folks didn't like quidditch. And they were valid reasons too.

"I thought you were super against playing," Draco teased her.

"At Hogwarts," Hermione retorted. She elbowed him in the side. "I can't believe I'll have time to trounce your grades and be on the quidditch team."

"Not that first years are allowed on the team anyways," Lucius added.

"So I have a whole year to figure out how to get the best grades and be on the quidditch team," Draco said.

"Which will only make it easier to be the best," Hermione said triumphantly.

Their fathers watched them bicker over who was going to get better grades. They weren't even in the same school, though they had agreed for Hermione to have after school sessions with some of Draco's tutors. It would make fitting in at Hogwarts much easier.

"With an attitude like that, she's sure to be in Slytherin," Lucius muttered to himself.

"I imagine you'd know better than me," John said. "Having never been, I can't say."

The match ended and they drove back to the Granger's house while Draco talked and talked about the game. Hermione hummed at the appropriate points, but was mostly tuning him out. Their fathers were halfway listening, but mostly so that they didn't miss anything important.

They needn't have worried. Draco talked, hardly pausing to take a breath, for the whole ride back. He didn't have any trouble with the fact that no one else had anything to say, much less the time to say it.

When they got to the Grangers' house, Draco ran through the door yelling.

"Mother! It was amazing! They tackled, and hurt each other. Some of the guys got bloody noses, but they didn't stop playing. It was like a whole team of beaters."

Narcissa smiled at him, but not before she shot a look at Lucius. "Sounds like you had fun."

"He did," Hermione said. "We all did."

"Even you?" Helena asked.

"Even Hermione," Draco said. He was a little louder than necessary. "She didn't like it when they crashed into each other. But she still had fun. And Father's going to teach her how to play quidditch."

Both Narcissa and Helena looked at Hermione. They knew that flying wasn't her strongest suit. And they weren't necessarily going to push the issue. Helena was nervous with Hermione flying at all. And that was without any of the added complications of quidditch.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Helena asked.

Hermione shrugged. "I'm sure Mr. Malfoy won't go too fast. And Dad's going to teach Draco how to play rugby."

The blood drained out of Narcissa's face at those words. Hermione and Draco didn't notice, but Lucius did.

"What did you agree to?" Narcissa hissed at her husband.

"I said yes when Draco asked me if he could learn to play rugby," Lucius answered as calmly as possible.

"We are going to have a word when we get home," Narcissa promised.

"Just you wait," Lucius said. "That girl is going to be a great chaser. Just you wait."

Narcissa shook her head. "For your sake, I hope she is."


	9. Chapter 9

Right before their first quidditch lesson, Hermione panicked. Draco was surprised that she had lasted as long as she had. He'd been expecting her to have spent the whole week previous freaking out.

Draco was a little nervous himself. He had been flying for quite some time, much longer than Hermione, but he hadn't attempted to do it while doing other things. But, he hid his nerves the best that he could. He didn't want to give Hermione any more reason to panic.

"There's no reason to be nervous," Lucius told the children. "We won't be doing anything crazy."

Hermione visibly relaxed. She still had fears about flying too high. Her broom wouldn't let her up more than six feet, but she was only comfortable around three. Low enough that if she fell she wouldn't get hurt.

Draco also relaxed, but Hermione didn't notice. She was too focused on continuing to breathe to pay attention to the subtle way that Draco stretched out his shoulders. Or the way his jaw unclenched.

"What are we going to be doing?" Hermione asked.

"First we're going to be going over the basic rules and positions. Then we'll do some ground exercises," Lucius said. "If, after that, you're feeling up to it, we might have you hover about a foot off the ground and toss the quaffle back and forth."

Draco and Hermione shared a grin. That was all stuff that they could do easily. Well, they hadn't ever played catch while floating, but they were excited to try. It couldn't be that much harder than regular catch.

The review of roles and rules went by quickly. Draco had practically drilled the players into Hermione's head. They didn't go into too much depth for the rules and regulations, however. After all, there were over four hundred ways to commit a foul.

Lucius gave Hermione a copy of _Quidditch Through the Ages_ for her to read at her leisure. He was certain that Draco and Narcissa hadn't given her a copy yet. It would be redundant to get her a copy of a book she already owned.

She had smiled up at him with gratitude, her whole being beaming. It was so innocent, so thankful, so pure, that Lucius wanted to give her everything. It was so different from the smirk that Draco bore when he got what he wanted. It was closer to the smile he wore whenever he gave Hermione a gift.

She tucked it away in her bag before joining them for the ground exercises, saying hello to Narcissa who was having tea on the porch. It was a lovely day after all. And there was plenty of space between her and their makeshift pitch that no one felt she was spying on them.

The ground exercises were a bit tricky for two six-year-olds. They managed, mostly due to the boundless energy that all children seem to have. They were tired, but happy that they succeeded, when the ground exercises were done.

Lucius let them lie on the ground for a while. He was impressed by the way they joked and played together, working together even when they were tired. He had to admit that had he been actively looking, he couldn't have picked a better future wife for his son.

"Do you two want to try catching the quaffle, or are we done?" he asked after a while.

"I'm up for it," Hermione said. "Draco?"

"I'm ready. Just let me get up."

Hermione heaved a large and dramatic sigh. She stood up and extended a hand to Draco. He took it up and she pulled him up with what could only be practiced ease. He was about an inch taller than her, but she pulled him up like it was nothing.

When they were hovering comfortably, Lucius handed Hermione the quaffle.

"Hah! He gave it to me," Hermione said triumphantly.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Just toss the thing, would you?"

Hermione chucked the quaffle at him, aiming for his head. She didn't miss exactly, as he caught it with ease before it hit him. His smirk grew.

Draco tossed the ball back to Hermione. She caught it with surprising ease and grace.

From her spot on the porch, Narcissa smiled into her teacup. She was doing her best to watch them while not being obvious about it. She smiled to herself as Draco and Hermione tossed the quaffle around.

Lucius had been right. Hermione had the natural talents of a chaser.

* * *

Hermione found herself conflicted about watching Draco learn to play rugby. She was exceedingly glad that she had refused the offer to learn as well. She didn't want to get tackled. At least in quidditch one wasn't supposed to fall to the ground.

Draco loved it. He adored every messy minute. He was horrible, but he loved it. His enthusiasm was remarkably admirable considering how frequently he was pummeled into the ground by someone older and larger.

"Don't you ever get tired of it?" Hermione asked.

"Tired of what?" he responded.

"Tired of getting pushed into the dirt."

Draco looked at her like she was crazy. "It's a game, Hermione. They're supposed to tackle me."

Hermione shook her head, still amazed that Draco could think like that. "They're all bigger than you."

"They won't always be," Draco shrugged.

Hermione knew he was right. Both Lucius and Narcissa were tall. Narcissa was long, willowy, and elegant. Lucius looked closer to an ancient Greek sculpture. He exuded strength and power. And Draco was more likely to resemble his father.

"It still can't be fun," Hermione mumbled.

Draco laughed. "No one said I liked getting tackled. But I can't tackle other people and not expect them to do the same to me."

Hermione shrugged. She wasn't likely to change Draco's mind. He liked sports far too much for that to happen. He was very much like her father in that regard. She would stick with her books, drawings, and quidditch.

* * *

A/N: I know we didn't get to see Helena and John Granger this chapter. They weren't big parts for what I wanted to show. And Hermione's conflicted because she likes to watch Draco, but she hates seeing him get hurt.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Okay deer readers, we're skipping ahead a few months. I think you'll be able to figure out where we are, but I didn't want anyone to feel lost.

* * *

Severus Snape stood awkwardly to the side of the room. He didn't enjoy parties with only adults in attendance, let alone ones where children were present. But, as Draco's godfather and without the excuse of a mandatory potions conference that year, he was strong-armed into attendance. Narcissa Malfoy could be scary when she so chose.

At least he didn't stand out the most, even if he kept from the action. That honour belonged to a couple that were clearly muggles. Severus hadn't seen them at any of the birthday parties he had been to. He wondered what they were doing there.

Oddly enough to him, they seemed to be more at ease with the whole wizarding birthday party situation than he was. He wondered exactly how muggles had come to be invited to the birthday party of the scion of one of the most powerful pureblood families in Britain.

He didn't dare ask. It would be presumptuous of him to demand that sort of information from his hosts. And he wasn't quite comfortable talking to muggles under any circumstances. His questions would only make things worse.

Instead he stood awkwardly by the refreshment table, picking at a plate of sandwiches. He got his wish to talk when someone came over.

"I always forget how much energy those kids have," the man muttered.

"I have to say that I'm relieved that it's no longer boundless by the time they're eleven," Severus agreed.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met. John Granger," he said.

"Severus Snape."

"I hope you haven't been to any of these parties for a while," John said. "I would hate to think that I've been horribly rude in not remembering you."

Severus shook his head. "I don't have any children of my own, so I try to avoid these gatherings as much as possible."

"Then what's your relation to Draco?"

It didn't escape Severus' notice that John had called him Draco. Not Master Malfoy. They were closer to the Malfoy family than he had previously thought.

"I'm Draco's godfather."

John's jaw dropped before he quickly regained his composure. Most of it anyways. "You're Uncle Sev? Draco talks about you all the time."

Severus thought for a moment. He had always been strict with Draco. All his experiences with first years had extinguished any leniency he once might have possessed with children around cauldrons. Unfortunately for those close to him, it had spilled over into his personal life as well.

As far as Severus knew, Draco didn't mind that his godfather liked peace and quiet and order to be kept. Draco seemed to enjoy being around his "Uncle Sev" and looked forward to their meetings.

"What's your relation to Draco?" Severus turned the question back to John.

John smiled. "Now that's a question. I'm not really sure what the right term is. My daughter, Hermione, is Draco's best friend.

He wasn't sure exactly how much they were supposed to reveal to people. Last year Mrs. Greengrass had been complaining to Helena that Astoria was no longer making as much progress for betrothal talks as she had hoped. And Helena had no clue what to say to that. John was feeling just as lost in that moment.

Severus served himself some punch so that his scowl would be less obvious. The Malfoy scion best friends with a muggle? What was the world coming to?

"I'm surprised that such a thing happened," Severus drawled. "The Malfoys have always been a family of incredibly discriminating tastes."

John shrugged. "Well, Lucius and Draco love rugby so I don't think that I'm allowed to complain too much. We watch a match just about every other weekend."

Severus choked on his punch. Lucius Malfoy not only enjoying a sport where muggles beat each other up, but loving it enough to watch it? Things had certainly changed. Perhaps he should have taken Narcissa up on one of her many invitations to catch up.

"How did they meet?" Severus asked. "Draco and Hermione."

"You really should ask my wife. She was there. The first time they met, she thought that Draco was imaginary. I'm still not sure why she agreed to go back to the train station the second time. But I guess I'm glad she did."

On the one hand, he was glad that it had led to a friendship with the Malfoys. He knew that if things had gone differently, the Malfoys wouldn't have even entertained the thought of meeting the Grangers much less being friends with them. And it was wonderful to have horizons expanded.

On the other hand, he wasn't glad about the implications of betrothal. Especially at such a young age. Lucius had explained that the magic wouldn't have bound them if they were incompatible. That didn't ease his conscious much.

Severus frowned. If Mrs. Granger had thought Draco was imaginary, it was likely that he was under a spell. And if Hermione had seen him, talked with him, that meant that she was magical. His heart skipped a beat. A muggleborn.

"So how often do Draco and Hermione see each other?" Severus asked.

"At least once a week. Narcissa and Helena organize something during the week. And then Lucius and I are responsible if things happen on weekends. I've been helping Draco learn to play rugby. He's joined a youth club in our neighbourhood."

"And is Hermione doing anything sports related?" Severus asked. He couldn't imagine that Lucius had let Draco play rugby. At least not without something in return.

John nodded. "She's learning how to play quidditch. Narcissa says that she and Draco could probably take on the Gryffindor quidditch team by themselves. Provided that they don't have a decent seeker."

"Is she a keeper or something?"

Typically, a keeper and a chaser could hold off another team well enough if they were talented enough. And he knew that Draco was a wonderful chaser. It was one of the things the boy sometimes couldn't stop talking about.

"Chaser. Same as Draco. They are pretty amazing to watch," John said. "I envy you. If they make it onto the Slytherin team, you'll get to see them play all the time."

"What makes you so sure she'll be in Slytherin?" Severus said.

"Talk to her sometime. I'm sure she'll convince you."

A relatively short girl with the biggest curliest hair Severus had ever seen wandered over to them. "Dad, who's this?"

"This is Draco's Uncle Sev."

"Oh," she curtsied as best she could in the shorts she was wearing. "It's nice to meet you. Draco's said so many wonderful things about you. Like that you teach at Hogwarts. Potions he said."

"That's right."

"I'm looking forward to being in your class. I have to go tell Draco you're here."

She dashed off before Severus could tell her that he already had plans to meet Draco once the party was over. He sighed into his punch, trying not to let his frustration show.

"She's definitely something," John said.

"That she is."

* * *

A/N: So we meet Severus Snape here. Hope no one's totally upset with my characterization of him. He's been trying to deal with his life, and really doesn't like children. As one of my sisters says "children under five are fine. Children five to seventeen are demons." I'm not sure I totally agree with her. But she's pretty adamant about it. (And she's the one who wants to be a teacher. Go figure.) Hope you guys enjoy.


	11. Chapter 11

In the months that Draco and Hermione had been learning how to play quidditch, they had gotten quite good. If Lucius said so himself. They were exceptional chasers. And the synchronicity they had helped them be good beaters. Neither of them was a grand keeper, but they were decent enough.

Strangely enough, seeker was not a position either of them particularly liked to play. They were good at it, but didn't enjoy it. It was typically the most prestigious position on the team. If a team won, it was usually because their seeker caught the snitch. If they lost, it was usually blamed on the seeker.

Lucius thought that it might be the way they could read each other almost intuitively that made playing against each other tricky. When Draco played keeper, he could block Blaise and Theo's shots perfectly. With Hermione, it was about half and half.

Hermione's rates were similar. She could block Draco more often, but that was usually attributed to the fact that she could distract him much more effectively. She had Draco wrapped around her finger, and neither of them knew it.

A few weeks before Hermione's seventh birthday, she, Draco, Blaise, and Theo were all dresses in tiny sized quidditch gear.

"Don't they look darling?" Narcissa cooed.

Helena smiled and pulled a disposable camera from her bag. She clicked a few photos of Hermione smiling brightly while the boys all looked confused. It didn't' look like any camera they had ever seen. Helena figured that those pictures would be something to laugh over later.

"Come on guys," Hermione urged. "Smile."

They all flashed brilliant photogenic smiles. The camera clicked and was put away. Helena made a mental note to send copies of the photos to all the boys' parents. They should appreciate just how handsome their sons were.

"What was that?" Theo asked.

"A camera."

"I've never seen a camera like that," Blaise said.

"Neither have I," Draco added.

While Draco had often been at the Granger's house, he had mostly seen her larger, fancier camera. It was closer looking to what he was used to. Wizarding cameras hadn't changed much since their inception.

"I'm glad to see that you took my advice about the camera," Severus said.

"You were right that I wouldn't want to risk my better camera," Helena said. "And I managed to get some interesting facial expressions. Remind me to tell you of the time I got them to try moussaka."

It was only years of sporting a frown and dismal expression that kept Severus from smiling. As it was, the corners of his mouth twitched. He would have loved to have seen that.

"I know that with a disposable camera, the pictures won't move, but might I get a copy of one of those?"

"I was going to give a set to Narcissa, and a few pictures to Theo's father and Blaise's mother. It would be no trouble at all to get you as many as you want."

Severus nodded. He really only wanted a single picture of his godson looking less than perfect. Draco looked proud and haughty in just about every photo Severus owned of him. His favourite, however, was the picture of two-year-old Draco playing in the mud.

Severus had taken that one himself. Narcissa Malfoy liked to pride herself on how elegant and refined she and her family were. All of the pictures in the manor were staged. She would have been less than thrilled to find the picture that Severus had taken.

It was one of Severus' most prized possession. Not THE most. That was reserved for a stuffed owl gifted to him by a certain Lily Evans what felt like a lifetime ago. He couldn't bear to part with it, and it still had a special spot in his room. Not that he would ever admit that.

He also certainly didn't want to tell Narcissa that he had a picture of Draco looking like something other than the little prince she thought he was. Even if he was becoming more and more sure that Helena Granger had a larger collection of photos like that than he had ever thought possible.

"Alright then," John Granger said. "Who's ready to play?"

All four of them shot hands up. "Me. Me. Me." It was impossible to tell exactly where each voice ended.

"Alright. So here's what we're going to do," Lucius said. "Blaise and Theo, you're going to be chasers against Draco and Hermione."

The boy's faces fell.

"We're going to get creamed," Theo moaned.

"Badly," Blaise added.

The adults looked at Draco and Hermione, who had merciless grins on their faces. Theo and Blaise might have known that they were going to be beaten, but they had no clue how badly.

"Are Lucius and John sure this is a good idea?" Severus asked.

Narcissa shook her head. "Not really, but those two put if they get split up. And it would be horribly unfair to have them against each other."

"I swear that Hermione gets half of her shots against Draco in the hoop because she does some fancy trick and he can't help but watch," Helena said.

"I'm just glad it was those two that got themselves into a magically binding betrothal. They seem like they'll be able to handle themselves as they get older," Severus grumbled.

He was feeling a little jealous. He had hoped that Lily would reciprocate his feelings one day. And he didn't like that Draco, who was much too young to even understand romantic love, had found someone who he was sure to fall in love with. Or at least like her enough that being married wouldn't be a tedious part of life.

"Maybe," Narcissa mused. "They're still going to get into trouble. You know that. And I'm expecting you to keep them out of the worst of it."

"You know that I'll do what I can, but I'm not in charge of Dumbledore."

"Who's Dumbledore?" Helena asked.

"I keep forgetting you don't know," Narcissa said. "Dumbledore is the headmaster at Hogwarts."

"Oh right. Hogwarts."

Severus barely kept a snort in. It was strange how this dynamic could bring out his emotions. But he was still having a hard time believing that Narcissa forgot that Helena was a muggle. With the way she and her husband dressed, it was almost impossible for them to be anything else.

He turned his attention back to the game the children were playing. Draco and Hermione were good. Really good. So good that he was considering trying to get them on the Slytherin team their first year.

 _Slow down,_ he told himself. _They're only seven. Let them get sorted first._

* * *

A/N: Hopefully now there are less questions about how long it's been and where we are in the story line. I didn't think last chapter was confusing. But I know everything. At least concerning this. Also, I'm sorry it took so long to get it up. I've had a really bad cold. Still do actually. But I can't sleep. Hope things still make sense.


	12. Chapter 12

Draco found that he liked the weekends much better than he liked the weekdays. Hermione was attending muggle school during the weekdays, so he didn't get to see her as often as he liked. If he had his way, she would be tutored with him.

The good news, for him at least, was that Blaise and Theo were being tutored alongside him which made classes much less boring. And he was glad that Pansy and Daphne were taking lessons. It was better than having them all grouped together all the time.

He did enjoy the dance classes that his mother had signed them up for. She said that everyone needed to know how to dance. And she'd even managed to get Mrs. Granger to sign Hermione up. So that was one day during the week he got to see her.

He was nervous as her birthday party approached. The previous year had been interesting, but he wasn't sure if the same kids were going to be there. He'd noticed that muggles moved far more frequently than wizards. He guessed it had something to do with the houses not just changing to fit their needs.

He shuffled awkwardly outside her house on the day of her actual birthday. It was a Thursday, and a school night. He didn't know why his parents were so insistent on going that night, but he wasn't going to argue. He liked any excuse to see Hermione.

She opened the door, a bright smile on her face. "I'm so glad you guys could come."

"We wouldn't miss it," Narcissa said smoothly. "We love spending time with you and your family."

"And I wanted to give you this," Draco said. He held up the carefully wrapped box. It had been all him that time, the way each of her gifts had been.

Hermione smiled as she took the box and put it in the sitting room. "You didn't have to give it to me today," she told Draco.

"I wanted to," he said. "I know you'll get more presents on Saturday. And my parents will have one for you then. But this one's from me, and I wanted you to have it today."

Hermione laughed softly. It would be just like him to be so impatient about her opening a present. Especially one from him. He just wanted to see if she liked it.

She had to admit that it was the same for her. She liked to see what Draco thought of the presents she had given him. And she was always nervous that he wouldn't like what she had given him. And since she had made them, that feeling was magnified.

Draco had always told her that he would like anything she gave him, just because she had given it to him. That didn't do much to ease her nerves, though she knew how he felt. Anything Draco had gotten her would be more than wonderful.

"Why don't we go see what our parents are talking about?" she suggested.

"Probably some weird grown up thing," Draco said.

"Or quidditch."

"I guess it could be rugby," Draco said.

It was neither. It turned out that their parents were discussing quadpot. It differed from quidditch in a manner similar to the way American football differed from rugby. But with more explosions.

"Quadpot sounds weird," John said.

"It's American," Narcissa said as if it explained everything.

Draco joined in the conversation every now and then. He hadn't ever played, but had seen a few games when his parents had taken him to exhibitions. And he loved quidditch to the point where he had taken it upon himself to learn everything about the sport that he could.

Hermione was quiet, listening intently. Draco explained as best he could in whispers and promised to get her a book that would do a better job. He might have a vague understanding of the game, but that didn't mean that he could explain it to a point where Hermione could understand.

Dinner came soon after that, and the conversations swung around to traditional quidditch. Hermione teased Draco about being a better chaser than he was. Everyone knew that they were the best on the same team.

"I can throw the quaffle with more accuracy than you."

"Well, I can throw it farther than you."

"I almost wish Blaise and Theo were here so you could team up against them instead," Helena muttered.

"That's no fun mum," Hermione said. "We know we're better than them. We trounce them every time we play. We know it."

"More importantly, they know it," Draco added.

"But Draco won't admit that I'm the better chaser."

"I won't admit it because you aren't."

The adults all shared a look as the two children continued to lightheartedly squabble over who was the better player. They just continued eating, knowing that the discussion would run itself out soon enough.

Dessert was cake and ice cream. Chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. It was Hermione's favourite, and one of the few times her parents willingly let her have sweets. As dentists, they didn't think that sugar was a great thing.

The Grangers herded Draco and Hermione into the sitting room. They figured that Draco would want to be there when Hermione opened her gift from him. They were right.

He watched practically enthralled as Hermione carefully unwrapped the paper around his present. She could tell that this was something he had done himself. The elves did things in a way that it always felt different. And he used a lot more tape.

Not that it was a bad thing. Hermione had always insisted that she be the one to do everything involved with Draco's gifts. And she was glad that he was reciprocating.

She took her time unwrapping the box. There was something satisfying about getting the paper separated from the tape without ripping it. And it was nice to see Draco squirm as he got more and more anxious.

Inside was a set of quills. Not just any quills. Quills that were designed for everything. There was one for writing. There was one specially designed for sketching, and could be erased just like a pencil. There was one that was supposed to be specifically for learning how to use a quill.

Hermione launched herself out of her chair and into Draco's arms, throwing herself around him in an embrace of gratitude.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you," she repeated.

"I was hoping you'd like it," Draco said.

* * *

A/N: So I'm sorry, but my life got busy. I'm in a play. I'm the lead in a play. I'm not exactly sure how that happened, but I am going to be using my time for learning lines, blocking, and rehearsing. Unfortunately I think my writing is going to get a little slower.


	13. Chapter 13

Okay, so we're jumping forward a little here. We're between Draco's birthday and Hermione's in the year that they turn 10. Everyone's congregated at Malfoy manor because the Malfoys hold several gatherings over the summer.

* * *

"Aren't you excited for next year?" Pansy asked.

Hermione shook her head. "I'm younger than all of you except Astoria. My birthday's in September. I'm going to be a year behind you."

Pansy looked far too gleeful at Hermione's words. There was no doubt in anyone's minds that Pansy had her sights set on being Lady Malfoy in the future. But Draco had said that he had some say in the matter. And he had also said that he didn't want to be married to Pansy.

Hermione wondered if she had a chance. She wasn't from a noble bloodline. She didn't have a wealthy family or the prestige that the rest of Draco's friends had. She had talents that were considered especially well. And she was Draco's best friend. Even above Theo and Blaise.

Theo and Daphne already had a tentative betrothal. It wouldn't be finalized until they were fourteen and had decided that they weren't going to kill each other. If it weren't for that, Hermione figured that Draco would not have minded being betrothed to Daphne.

Hermione knew that the Greengrasses were still trying to draw up a betrothal contract between Draco and Astoria. And if that happened, Hermione would be devastated. She would be forced to listen to Astoria talk about plans between her and Draco. And he would put Astoria above Hermione out of duty.

Hermione didn't like that one bit. She wished that Draco didn't have to be betrothed to anyone. But it was tradition. And even if by becoming her friend he had started to break tradition, she doubted that his parents would approve of him breaking it further.

"What are you girls talking about?" Blaise asked.

"Just that Hermione won't be going to Hogwarts with us," Pansy said with fake sympathy.

"Of course she will. Draco said she had to be on the team with him," Blaise argued.

"What Professor Snape said was that Draco was a better chaser when I was on his side. And that it would behoove him to convince me to play as well," Hermione said.

"You know that Draco wouldn't care what Snape said. He just heard 'get her on the team.'"

"Well, he's going to have to wait a year," Pansy said.

"Hermione," Helena Granger said. "Mrs. Malfoy has something for you."

"Coming Mum." Hermione walked over to where her father and the Malfoys were standing. She was glad to get away from Pansy and her dramatics.

"There you are dear," Narcissa said. She handed Hermione a letter with emerald green ink on the envelope.

Hermione turned the envelope over in her hands a few times before opening it. She read it over once, then twice.

"Is this right?" she asked.

Both Narcissa and Helena nodded. They had petitioned Hogwarts for a few years and finally gotten an answer. But even though Hermione had only been allowed to attend Hogwarts with Draco because they were betrothed, they weren't sure it was the right time to tell them.

John and Lucius were insistent that the sooner the children knew the better. After all, Draco had known that he would be betrothed for several years. And Hermione was incredibly bright and had found that out not too long after she and Draco had been having weekly meetings.

"How?"

All four of the parents shared a look. It was time to tell them.

They herded them into a study, and the Malfoys set up some silencing spells. What they were about to share wasn't something they wanted all the other parents to know. At least not yet.

"What we tell you, you can't tell anyone," Helena said.

"Not even Theo and Blaise?" Draco asked.

"Not even them," Lucius said.

The Malfoys and the Grangers took turns explaining that while betrothals of binding properties were rare, they did exist. But ones that individuals created themselves were almost unheard of. They were more legends than anything. But Draco and Hermione had created one, without even knowing it.

They explained that there was nothing to be done. They would be married, but that they were still going through the motions of talks to avoid offending anyone. Especially since the Greengrasses were still determined to have Draco marry Astoria.

The plan was to reveal it when Draco and Hermione chose, but not before their first year of Hogwarts was over. Theo and Blaise wouldn't be surprised, but at least one year of school would give everyone a chance to see where such a betrothal might have come from.

"Fourth year sound good?" Hermione asked Draco.

Draco smirked. "I'm just glad that I'm not going to marry Pansy."

"Me too," Hermione said. "She was being awful. Saying that you couldn't marry someone who'd be in the year below you. But I guess we don't have to worry about that."

"You never had to worry about Pansy," Lucius said. "She's not the kind of girl we would want Draco to be marrying."

"And even if we didn't pick you, we couldn't have come up with a better match," Narcissa said.

Hermione blushed and dropped her gaze to her shoes. She knew that her parents weren't keen on the idea of her marrying anyone for any reason other than love. But she also knew that they liked Draco. She could have done far worse.

"Thank you ma'am," she mumbled.

"Can we go play again?" Draco asked.

Narcissa nodded and Draco and Hermione ran out to find Theo and Blaise. They'd been talking about playing two on two quidditch for most of the day and it was time to find the brooms.

"What did they call you in there for?" Blaise asked.

"Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy wanted to tell me not to worry about Pansy," Hermione said. It wasn't a lie. They had said that. But she withheld most of the information. She still had two years to go before she was allowed to tell anyone.


	14. Chapter 14

It was Draco's eleventh birthday, and it was the most extravagant sight that Hermione had ever seen. And she'd seen Pansy's ball a few months before. She had thought that was excessive. Pansy had worn the biggest dress that she could fit into.

Hermione and her parents sometimes thought that it was ridiculous just how much money these families had. Not that they worked much. Most everything was inherited. Which just made it all the more impressive.

Hermione stood in the ballroom which was decorated in silver and gold. A strange combination for the middle of June. Hermione had always associated that with Christmas. Mostly because people put gold balls and silver tinsel on trees.

She herself was wearing a bright green dress. Mrs. Malfoy had said that it brought out her eyes. Hermione, who had dark brown eyes, thought that was ridiculous. But she wasn't about to argue with Mrs. Malfoy. Especially when she saw how lovely the dress was.

It was simpler than most of the dresses of the other girls. Pansy was wearing a very puffy pastel pink dress that made her skin look slightly sallow. Daphne was in an equally large gown, but it was a flattering shade of bright blue that brought out her eyes.

Hermione's dress was flowy, but not billowing. It draped around her form almost reminiscent of a Greek goddess. It wasn't draped in the same fashion as a chiton, but there was something in the gentle pleats of the fabric that invoked the imagery. And the way she carried herself suggested power.

"You look lovely," Draco said.

She smacked him lightly on the arm. "Don't scare me like that."

Draco laughed. "It's too easy. Especially at events like this. You get so wrapped up in your own head that anyone could talk to you and you wouldn't notice until halfway through the second sentence."

Hermione wanted to argue with that. But she found that it was very difficult. She did have a tendency to freeze up at the more formal events that the purebloods held. But it was because she wound up comparing herself to Daphne and Pansy. Even if Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy liked her better.

But she was far more comfortable on a broom competing against Blaise and Theo than she was in a dress in a ballroom. And part of it had to do with the fact that she knew, even after years of being friends with everyone and learning as much as she could, a lot less about wizarding culture than they did. And that wasn't even the high society aspects of it.

And in their year the only other girl who was invited to the soiree was Millicent Bulstrode. Or, she was the only one who had accepted. But, even though everyone had accepted Hermione, it was still sometimes difficult for some of the parents to get along with everyone.

Hermione had heard rumors that the Longbottoms and the Abbots had declined their invitations. As had Susan Bones' aunt. But no one could blame any of them. Long lasting disagreements, especially when formed in childhood, were difficult to break.

"Where are Theo and Blaise?" she asked.

Draco looked up and scanned the room. "Oh no," he groaned.

"Oh no what?" Hermione asked dubiously. "What happened?"

"Blaise and Theo," Draco said. "You remember what happened when they disappeared at Pansy's party."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "They're your best friends. And even I think your mother's the scariest person when she's upset. They wouldn't dare ruin her party."

"I thought it was my party," Draco sulked.

Hermione laughed, attempting to stifle the giggles into her hand. Sometimes things just seemed so obvious to her. Apparently they weren't to Draco.

"It might be your birthday. But the party is for her. If you were in charge it would have way more quidditch."

It was very true. Draco loved quidditch. More than just about anything. And he might have included some other sports too, such as rugby, if it was an option. But it wasn't. His party was far too formal for anything of that nature.

"True. Wait." He paused, thoughtful expression on his face. "If you were a quidditch crazy eleven year old boy where would you go?"

Some of the colour drained from Hermione's face. She was fairly fond of quidditch. Mostly because she liked to play. But she wasn't a fan of the idea of Blaise and Theo starting a game amongst themselves with no regards to the fact that they were supposed to be at a ball.

She walked with purpose to the long windows in the ballroom. They overlooked the grounds, which were magnificent. She walked quickly, but was careful to keep her pace slow enough so as not to draw attention.

She looked out, and only saw green grass and the trees on the estate. Nothing was out of the ordinary. And she was certain that she would see something if the boys had managed to break into the broom shed successfully.

They would most likely be flying circles around. At least it would be better than the cake they dumped on Pansy at her party. A small smile crept onto Hermione's face at the memory. Though she had felt slightly sorry for Pansy, it had been funny.

There was a slight clatter and a butler figure, whom Hermione had never seen before, was dragging Blaise and Theo in by their ears. Both boys winced and fought against the pressure. Neither had much success.

"I found these two trying to sneak the cake away from the kitchen," he said. "You might do well to keep an eye on them."

He left, and Narcissa waived her wand over the doors. It was a complicated pattern. Hermione didn't know what she was doing, but she could feel the pull of the magic as it wound through her. She suspected that it was having a similar effect on Draco.

"Do you suppose that quidditch is now out of the question?" Draco asked.

Hermione laughed. Of course, Draco would be concerned that his favourite sport wouldn't be an option. Of course.

"I think that no one's going to be allowed out of the ballroom until it's time to go home," she said.

"Not even to go to the bathroom?"

Hermione shook her head. She was trying to keep mirth out of her voice. It wasn't working as well as she might have hoped. "I think you might need a parent to go with you."

Draco deflated a little. "How am I ever supposed to go sneak on the presents now?" he pouted.

Hermione chuckled, and then stifled it as fast as she could. "I think that you wouldn't be able to do that even if there weren't spells on the ballroom doors."

"And?" Draco asked. "Now I can't even try. And I'd been getting closer to being able to actually sneak into that room."

"I think that might have something to do with it," Hermione muttered to herself.

"What?" Draco asked.

"Nothing," Hermione said quickly. It was obviously not nothing, but he couldn't prove otherwise.

"If you say so," Draco mumbled. "But still. How could Blaise and Theo do this?"

"Do what?" Blaise asked.

"Draco's mad that you two made it so that he can't try to sneak into whatever place his parents have hidden his presents. As if they'd let him open them while something this fancy is going on," Hermione said.

She shook her head. It was the same with all the other pureblood galas she'd been going to. No one was allowed to open gifts while at a ball. They were all put to the side. And knowing Draco's impulsiveness, it seemed like a good idea that gifts were locked up and warded.

"Well, we did find out that there are two cakes," Theo said. "Don't know what the second one's for."

Draco and Hermione looked at each other. They had a suspicion. But they weren't going to share that with anyone. Not until their parents told them to. And that probably wouldn't be until their third or fourth year.

"Do you think we'll get a slice of both?" Draco asked.

Hermione shrugged. "I think you will, but I couldn't say what the second cake is for."

"Eating?" Theo said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Of course, Theo," Draco said. "When are you free next week? I want to play quidditch."

"Why not later today?" Blaise asked.

"Because somebody," Draco glared at Blaise, "decided that he needed to sneak into the kitchens. And now my mother's gone and sealed us in here."

Blaise glanced down at his shoes. "Sorry," he muttered.

Hermione patted his arm gently. "It's okay. We'll just have to do it later. And let Draco sulk."

"I am not sulking."

"Of course not," Hermione said innocently. "You just happen to be a little disappointed that you can't play quidditch today."

"A little. We can always play rugby at your parties," Draco grumbled.

"You guys are going to be at Hogwarts when my birthday comes this year," Hermione said.

"Right." Blaise and Theo shared a glance and then looked at the floor bashfully.

Draco raised an eyebrow at her. He knew that she would be going to Hogwarts that year. She knew that she would be going to Hogwarts that year. But they hadn't shared that. And it would have been fine for Theo and Blaise to know.

Fine for them to know what was going on, if they weren't aware of the reason behind it. Theo and Blaise were incapable of keeping a secret. Unless it was one concerning a prank, but even that was a little dubious. They had a horrible habit of snickering.

"I think it's time for cake," Narcissa Malfoy called from the center of the room.

Everything stopped as the doors to the ballroom opened and in were wheeled two of the largest cakes that Hermione had ever seen. She knew that they had to be structurally supported with magic. There was no way they could have stayed upright otherwise.

"And before we cut the cake, I have a small announcement," Mrs. Malfoy continued. "Hermione, dear, I have a letter for you."

It was exactly the sort of letter that Hermione had received earlier. But it was a lot more formal. She broke the seal on the back hesitantly and opened it. She managed to keep her nerves under control, but mostly because she had an idea of what to expect.

"What does it say?" Daphne asked.

"I get to go to Hogwarts with you guys," she whispered.

"Now that's something worth cake," Theo said.

* * *

A/N: Now I know I haven't updated in a while. I've had the worst migraine ever. At least, I think it is. Writing is a little hard at the moment.


	15. Chapter 15

"I don't understand why we couldn't have done this earlier," Helena Granger said.

July was hot. Diagon alley was busy with everyone who had put off school shopping. And even some of those who hadn't.

"Because children grow so fast," Narcissa said. "You'll thank me for it later when we have to get Hermione new robes at Christmas."

Helena sighed. "Don't remind me."

"I'm not that tall," Hermione said.

Draco smirked. "I'm going to be the tallest in our year."

"You wish," Hermione mumbled.

"Just you wait. I'll be the tallest person in the whole house by the end of Hogwarts," Draco proclaimed.

Their mothers shared a glance. Considering their parents, they likely would have a considerable height difference. John and Lucius weren't that different in height. Lucius was a few inches taller, but John could probably take him in a fight if it came to it.

Of course, that would have to be a fight in the muggle way. John wouldn't last very long if spells were involved. No fault of his own.

Narcissa was tall and willowy. Helena wasn't quite. She wasn't that short, but she wasn't tall by any means. And she was of a medium build. Not quite muscular. Not quite plump. And definitely not slight.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I bet one of the muggleborns will be just as tall as you. If not taller."

"And what do I get when I win?" Draco asked.

"I say we decide winnings in a year," Hermione said. She was hot and tired. And it wasn't even close to the ending. Hopefully Madam Malkin's would be cooler.

Draco thought it over. He wanted to know what his prize would be immediately. There was no doubt in his mind that he would win. But, he supposed that he could wait. After all, it was unlikely that anyone was going to be as tall as he thought he would be.

"Alright."

They reached Madam Malkin's and went inside. Inside the shop it was significantly dimmer and much cooler. There even seemed to be a breeze floating through, keeping everyone from overheating.

Hermione breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She wasn't a fan of heat. There was something to be said for temperate climates. And she enjoyed fall and spring far more than she enjoyed either summer or winter. But if she had to pick, she would pick the winter over the summer.

And that wasn't just about Christmas. Draco's birthday was in the summer and that was about as big as Christmas.

"Thank heavens," Helena said. "I felt like I was going to melt."

"I thought you were Greek," Narcissa said offhand.

"Doesn't mean I like the summers," Helena said. "I much prefer living in England. It's nice and cool for a lot longer."

"There's a reason we only visit Greece in the winter," Hermione added.

"I hope you plan on coming to the ball this year," Draco said. "It's the first year we'll be allowed to actually attend."

The Malfoy Christmas ball was THE event of the season. Everyone who was anyone was invited. But the Grangers hadn't made it before. Mostly because they were visiting family in Greece.

"Please?" Hermione said to her mother.

"It would be a convenient time to announce their betrothal," Narcissa said.

"Do those usually get announced this early?" Helena asked.

"Not usually. But this isn't exactly a typical situation," Narcissa said. "They've been betrothed for years longer than most are when they're announced."

"I'll think about it."

Helena looked like she didn't want to think about it. The set of her jaw made it clear that her mind was fairly made up. But she would think about it. Later. When she could hear herself think and wasn't being interrupted by other people's thoughts.

Draco and Hermione stepped onto two daises and stood while tape measures whirled around them. Soon enough a pair of robes were being fitted to their measurements, with a little bit of growth room worked into the hems and sleeves.

"Draco, Hermione," Narcissa called. "We're going to go take a look at the bookshop. Meet us there when you're done."

Helena needed to get out. She needed some space. And Narcissa could see that. Besides, Flourish and Blots was three doors down. The chance of them getting into too much trouble was tiny. And she would know if anything happened. Magic was handy that way.

When both Mrs. Granger and Mrs. Malfoy had been gone for a few minutes a boy with scraggly black hair came into the store. He stared around in shock and wonder.

"Hogwarts?" Madam Malkin asked.

The boy nodded, obviously dumfounded.

"Stand on the platform," Madam Malkin commanded.

The boy did as he was instructed, without hesitation. It was strange, his mannerisms. Most people who came in in muggle dress were a little apprehensive the first time. And it was clearly his first time in Diagon alley.

"I've never seen you before," Draco said.

"I don't suppose you would," the boy said.

"So, which house do you think you'll be in?" Draco asked. "I'm sure to be in Slytherin. As is Hermione here."

Hermione waived at the newcomer, aware that he wasn't going to get a word in edgewise. Not that he seemed concerned with that.

"After all," Draco continued, "my family's been in Slytherin for generations."

"Mine hasn't" Hermione said. "I'm the first one in my family to go to Hogwarts."

"And you're bound to be in Slytherin," Draco insisted.

"You only say that because I'm determined to trounce you in all your subjects," Hermione retorted.

"No. Because they can't split up the greatest chasers that Hogwarts will have ever seen," Draco said.

"Chasers?" the boy asked.

"Muggleborn," Draco said.

"Be nice," Hermione warned.

"I will," Draco said. "It's not his fault where he was born."

"Actually, my parents were both magical," the boy with black hair said.

Hermione and Draco looked at each other. "Muggle raised," they agreed.

There were plenty of orphans from the wizarding war that had been placed in muggle orphanages. It wasn't at all surprising to find a wizard in a muggle home. Even if the ministry had done their best. There were simply too many children without parents.

"I guess that's one way to put it," the boy said.

"It's too bad that we don't have better relations with the muggle world," Draco said. "You were lucky."

"That the most wealthy and prestigious magical family of all Britain happened to be my imaginary friend?"

"I thought I was your best friend?" Draco said incredulously.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You are. But you forget that the first time I met you, you were under an invisibility spell."

"Oh yeah. I had forgotten about that."

Madam Malkin came out and took the measurements and set up a few packages for both Draco and Hermione.

"Are they always like this?" the boy asked.

Madam Malkin shook her head. "Worse most of the time."

The boy paid for his robes as Hermione and Draco picked up their things. The Malfoys had a tab that would be paid by owl later. And Hermione was included in that.

They then headed down to Flourish and Blots. The book store was one of Hermione's favourite places in the entire world. And her mother found it to be a sanctuary as well.

Although, Helena Granger found it to be a place where she could learn more about how to raise her daughter. Narcissa was a great help. But she was magical as well. And she might judge Helena for choices that she made, however inadvertent that was.

While precious few of the books even addressed issues such as parents and children having differing magical abilities, and even fewer of those were of muggle parents to magical children, they couldn't judge her. And Helena needed that every so often.

Helena thought she might want to write a book. She knew that she didn't know everything. And she was still learning things every single day. But there were so many basic things that would have made her life easier if she had known them.

"Mum," Draco said. "What can we do about muggle raised children? After all, we ran into one in Madam Malkin's."

"Be nice and show them the ropes," Helena said. "You remember when you met Hermione?"

"Not really," Draco said.

"Well, there was a lot we didn't know. She was young, so it wasn't as hard to catch up, but these kids won't have that advantage," Helena said. "So remember that it isn't weird that they don't know things. They're a little like David."

David was one of the kids on the rugby team that Draco was part of. That was the one thing he was going to miss the most while at Hogwarts. They didn't have a rugby team.

But David was also one of Draco's close friends. But sometimes Draco would say things and get a blank look from David. Not anyone's fault. But Draco often blamed it on his parents affinity for French things. And it did the job well enough.

"But David _is_ a muggle," Draco said.

"And you like him well enough," Helena said.

"He's my best friend on the team," Draco said. "I'm sad to leave him. Maybe I can join some pick up games during the holidays."

"I think what Mum is saying is that it's going to take some time for them to know what to do. And even I sometimes have trouble with things," Hermione said.

"Just because you don't agree with everything that Pansy says and does doesn't mean that you have trouble with things," Draco said.

"But I don't know why she wants me to agree with her. I still miss little things that you guys are trained to notice," Hermione insisted.

"That's okay," Narcissa said. "No one expects you to have it all down. You're only eleven."

"So is Pansy."

"But she has more tutors than you've ever seen," Narcissa said.

"And you play quidditch so much better than Pansy does. That's got to count for something," Draco said.

* * *

A/N: I did it! I finished the chapter! Hope you guys liked it. And yes. Hermione playing quidditch better than Pansy certainly counts for a lot. And she's currently less obnoxious. But I think what counts the most is that Draco and Hermione are best friends. That's a great thing. I'll stop rambling now.


	16. Chapter 16

August 31st came fast for the parents, and not fast enough for everyone who was attending. Hermione and Draco were so anxious that when the day came, they were at the train station over an hour early.

"And that's where we met," Draco said. He pointed at the bench where he'd first walked up to Hermione.

"I remember that," Helena said. "I thought I was going crazy."

Hermione giggled. "She thought I was making stuff up for weeks."

"I still have no clue how you two managed to meet up again. It shouldn't have happened once. Let alone twice," Helena said exasperatedly.

"Magic," Draco and Hermione chorused.

"I hate it when they give me that answer," Helena confided in Narcissa.

Narcissa would have shrugged if it weren't so casual of an answer. She couldn't explain it to Helena, as much as she wished she could. But Draco and Hermione seemed destined to have found each other. That was the only answer she and Lucius had been able to come to.

"Remember, it only looks like a wall," Narcissa said.

"Do you want me to go first?" Draco asked. He knew that it was sometimes easier to believe a thing was possible if someone else did it first.

Hermione shook her head. She didn't want to be seen even the slightest bit of a coward. She could go through the barrier just as easily as Draco.

She walked at the wall between platforms nine and ten as confidently as she knew how. No one, apart from maybe Narcissa, Lucius, and most definitely Draco, would have known how scared she was. It was sometimes frustrating.

Draco watched his best friend, who also happened to be his intended, walk at the barrier. He knew she would be fine. She was stubborn enough that he wasn't worried about that. But he almost wished that she had let him go first. She would be less nervous if she had.

"You next," Narcissa said to Draco.

Draco nodded and walked to the barrier. He was more cool about his entrance, but mostly because he'd been a few times. Mostly with his father to see off some associate's child.

They stood for a few minutes on the other side of the barrier.

"Less scary than I thought," Hermione said.

"We should probably move away from the barrier," Draco said.

They scooted off to the side with a rather spectacular red and black train. Hermione gasped a little at the steam engine.

"I thought you wizards were horribly against progress," she teased.

Draco rolled his eyes. "How exactly would you propose a bunch of school aged children get to Hogwarts?"

Hermione shrugged. "I don't know. But I certainly wasn't expecting that sort of a thing. It looks like a steam engine."

"That's because it is," Narcissa said.

"You can't be serious," Helena said. "Walls that let people walk through just to get to what looks like an ordinary steam engine. Please tell me that it's at least been enchanted."

"Of course it's been enchanted," Hermione said. "Can't you feel it?"

"Feel what?" Draco asked.

"The humming sensation," Hermione said. "Those are some pretty strong spells. Much stronger than anything I can do."

"Yet," Narcissa said. "You're quite a talented young lady."

"And if she's saying that," Helena pointed at the blonde lady, "it must be true. I wouldn't know. But I do know that your father and I are so proud of you. And we're going to miss you."

Hermione wrapped her arms tightly around her mother. She was more than ready to go learn magic, but part of her wished that she could go home after school every day like she used to in primary school. She supposed she would get used to it. Part of her didn't want to.

And then there was the fact that Draco was going. And while technically she wasn't supposed to be going for another year, there was no way that she was going to let him go by himself. She would have fought tooth and nail to get there if Narcissa hadn't done it for her.

Hermione was glad to have the witch on her side. Narcissa could be formidable. There was a reason that practically every other woman in her social circle practically bowed to her will. She was unstoppable when she put her mind to it.

"I'm going to miss you too," Hermione said.

"You promise that you write me, every day if you have to," Helena told her daughter.

"Starting tonight, right after the sorting," Hermione swore.

"You don't have to start right then," Narcissa said. "There is a feast. Neither I nor your mother would mind if either of you waited until afterwards to start writing."

"Can we get on the train?" Draco said, his voice far more bored than he was actually feeling. He was excited to be leaving. He'd been ready for Hogwarts for years. And he was anxious to get started. The only sad thing was that he'd had to leave his broom at home.

"What do we do with our trunks?" Hermione asked.

"I'll take care of that," Narcissa said. She pulled out her wand and waived a complicated pattern while muttering a few words in a language neither Draco nor Hermione had heard before.

The trunks vanished with a pop.

Draco found that his mouth dropped open. He hadn't seen his mother use magic very often. He thought that she didn't like to. And he suddenly had a different realization.

His mother loved magic. But she was powerful. Immensely so. And her display would have likely scared even grown wizards and witches if more people had been paying attention. And Draco was suddenly glad that they were early enough that no one was there.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Hermione asked.

"Maybe when you're a little older. It takes great control to do something like that. And you're only just beginning to learn your gift," Narcissa said.

"Besides, just wait till we get to learn wandless magic," Draco said.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Helena asked.

"I think it's a much worse idea to leave them without that skill. Who knows what trouble they might get into if they have to rely on their wands and lose them," Narcissa answered.

"Mum," Hermione said, "I'm going to be fine. Besides, she can't teach me anything until the holidays."

"That makes me feel so much better," Helena said sarcastically. Even so, she smiled a smidge at them.

"And you may want to get on the train and find a compartment. If I recall correctly, space fills up quickly," Narcissa added.

There was another round of hugs exchanged before Draco and Hermione climbed onto the train. They quickly found an empty compartment. It was fairly easy when there weren't a lot of people aboard.

"So, what do you want to do?" Draco asked once they had sat down.

Hermione pulled her sketchbook out of her bag. She carefully positioned everything she needed so she wouldn't have to move much and disrupt her focus.

"Don't move," she told Draco.

Draco was her favourite subject to draw. He'd posed for enough portraits, some from her and others that his parents had commissioned, to know how to stay still until she told him to move. Not that she needed it. She could draw him from memory and had on several occasions.

They sat in silence for a while. Hermione was preoccupied with the art. And Draco wasn't willing to move or disturb her. She got fairly frustrated when that happened.

A soft knock on the compartment door alerted them to the fact that there were more people coming. Hermione packed up her sketchbook. She didn't need whoever it was realizing that she had that sort of a talent.

"Hi," the boy they had met at Madam Malkin's said. "Can I sit with you? If I pick an empty compartment someone's sure to come in. And I don't really want to talk to them. Not sure what they'd think."

"Not sure I can't guarantee that Theo and Blaise won't come," Draco said.

"Pansy sure won't," Hermione said thankfully.

"All the same, I'd rather have some sort of barrier between me and questions."

"Don't worry about it, we can pass you off as some stray that Hermione picked up," Draco teased.

"Does that happen often?" the boy asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "If you're talking about David, he's your friend. I don't know why you keep blaming that on me. I don't even like rugby."

"I'm confused."

"Don't worry about it," Draco said.

"We've been friends since we were five. There's a lot you've missed if we only just me you. And I don't think I got your name. I'm Hermione."

"Harry," he said.

"Draco."

"Be nice," Hermione said to Draco. "Ignore him. He's just jealous. He was this way the first time I met Theo and Blaise."

"So much better," Harry said under his breath.

"I am not jealous," Draco whined.

Hermione gave him a pointed look. He was being jealous, and they all knew it. Him not wanting to admit to it didn't change the situation.

"Maybe a little bit," he admitted. "But you were my friend first."

"At this point he's just an acquaintance," Hermione said. "And if I'm allowed to be friends with Theo and Blaise, I can be friends with Harry. Besides, he might not be in Slytherin. And if I get placed elsewhere I'll need at least one friend who isn't in your house."

"I thought Slytherin was full of dark wizards," Harry said.

"What moron told you that?" Draco asked.

"Draco," Hermione warned. "It's true that Slytherin has had its fair share of dark wizards and witches. But that's because the house is full of people with ambition. And you know the saying about absolute power corrupting people."

"I guess," Harry said.

"It's also about family and tradition," Draco said. "Most of the Slytherins have a lineage going back for generations. We'll see about this one." He pointed at Hermione. "She's convinced she'll be a Ravenclaw. I'm not so sure."

"I'm a muggleborn," Hermione said. "There hasn't been one of those in Slytherin for the past fifty years."

"Why not?" Harry asked.

Both Hermione and Draco shrugged.

"Mother won't tell me," Draco said.

"And no one I've asked, not even Severus Snape, will tell me anything," Hermione said. "I think they think we're not old enough to understand. But both Lucius and Narcissa seem convinced I'll be in Slytherin too."

"Has my mother been wrong about anything before?" Draco asked.

"There's a first time for everything," Harry said.

"Thank you," Hermione said. "Besides, I don't have that much ambition."

"You should see her when she's interested in something," Draco said. "She's like a dog with a bone. And she already said that she's determined to get better grades than me. Just wait till you see her play quidditch."

"What's quidditch?" Harry asked.

Before either of them could answer the compartment door opened and Theo slid in followed close behind by Blaise.

"You would not believe how crowded the platform is," Theo complained.

"That's why you should get here earlier," Hermione said. "You wouldn't have to fight through as many crowds."

"But Hermione, there aren't usually this many people here," Blaise said.

He was right. There weren't usually people without children to drop off at the station. Or at least at platform nine and three quarters. They were usually busy with other things.

"I think I heard some whispers about Harry Potter on the platform," Theo said.

Hermione had heard the name, but few people would talk to her about him. She'd found out most of what she knew from books she'd smuggled to a hidden corner of the Malfoy library.

Even with her limited knowledge she saw Harry blanche a little at what she could confidently guess was his name. She caught Draco's eye and subtly shook her head.

"And who's this?" Blaise asked, finally noticing the other person in the compartment.

"I'm James," Harry said.

"Did Hermione adopt another person?" Theo teased Draco.

"If anything, Draco's the person who would do the adopting," Hermione huffed. "He's the one who adopted me. And then David."

"You adopted Daphne," Theo said. "Even if she is hopeless at quidditch."

"What's quidditch?" Harry-James asked again.

"Only the greatest sport known to man," Blaise exclaimed. He held a hand over his chest and dramatically flopped onto Draco's lap.

"Get off me you oaf," Draco said.

"You must be a muggleborn. Forgive us. Mione here might be one, but she's been around us and magic since we were all five. We've forgotten that sometimes people don't learn about our world as early," Theo said.

"It's a complicated sport that involves broomsticks. It's actually rather fun," Hermione said.

"And this is coming from the one who hates sports," Draco said. "So you know it's fun."

"She only likes it because you two can trounce everyone," Blaise said.

They talked quidditch, explaining the rules and tactics to Harry, for a while until a chubby blond boy came up.

"Have any of you seen a toad?" he asked.

They shook their heads but Draco stood up.

"Don't worry Neville, we'll help you find him," he said.

* * *

A/N: so I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far. I know it definitely is for this story. Don't worry. The sorting's going to be next chapter. If any of you have pressing feelings about this you can leave a review. I know where I want Harry. And you may have guessed where I'm heading with Hermione and Draco. Also, I know I'm not updating particularly quickly. I'm working on writing. But with wedding planning (which if you've read some of my other stories you'll already know that I'm engaged, if not that happened) and whatnot, things have gotten a little busy.


	17. Chapter 17

They didn't manage to find Neville's toad before they reached Hogwarts. He was more than a little upset, but Hermione managed to calm him down with a few words of encouragement. He couldn't have gotten far, and someone was sure to find him and return him before long.

They followed a huge man, who James said was Hagrid, down to the boats. With instructions of no more than three to a boat James got in one with Draco and Hermione, much to the dismay of Theo and Blaise.

"Oh, hush you two," Daphne said as she climbed in with them. "There was only room for one of you, and you know how they get about being separated."

"But why did James get to go?" Theo whined. "He's only known them since the train ride. We've known Draco since we were babies and Hermione as long as we can remember."

"And we play quidditch with them," Blaise added.

"You lose horribly each time you do," Daphne said. "And which one of you wanted to go and listen to them talk about how excited they are?"

It had been the main topic of discussion for those two for months. Mostly for Hermione since she could still hardly believe that she was going. And Draco was ecstatic that she was coming along with him. Neither of them were fond of the idea of splitting up for a whole year.

"But what if you'd gone with them?" Theo asked.

"Then we could have at least gone with James," Blaise said.

Daphne shook her head. Some of the time she couldn't believe that she was friends with those two. She sat in silence until they saw the castle, and the ripples in the reflection of it underneath them.

"Amazing," she breathed.

"I didn't think it was going to look like that," Theo said. "And I must have seen the picture at least a thousand times."

"If only because of Hermione," Blaise added.

"I hope that she doesn't get sorted into Ravenclaw," Daphne said.

"Me too. We'll never win at quidditch if she and Draco are split up," Blaise said.

Theo groaned. "And just think of all the point we'll miss out on."

"And Draco will be all mopey," Daphne added.

They all shuddered at the thought. Draco wasn't easy to deal with when he was upset. He was better than he had been, but the only one who seemed to be able to get through to him at that point was Hermione.

When they hit ground Hagrid held up a toad and asked if anyone had lost one. Neville ran up.

"Trevor!" he yelled

"Might want to keep an eye on that one," Hagrid said.

They reached the steps up to the castle not too much later. Everyone was in awe as they walked up the walkway into Hogwarts. They stopped in front of a door where a green robed witch was waiting for them.

She introduced herself as Professor McGonagall and explained a few things about the houses. She then suggested that a few of them might want to smarten up before she left for a few minutes.

"Do I look smart enough to be here?" Draco asked Hermione.

Hermione giggled and smacked Draco on the arm, appreciating his pun far more than anyone else. "You know that's not what she meant."

"Draco," both Theo and Blaise groaned.

A few ghosts floated through the wall arguing about someone. Peeves was the name the students gathered. But some of the ghosts seemed rather exasperated with him.

"Oh look," the lady ghost said. "First years. Probably waiting for the sorting."

"If any of you happen to wind up in Hufflepuff I'd be glad," one who looked like a friar said. "My old house you know."

"Or in Ravenclaw," the lady ghost said.

They floated off through the other wall. The children all stared up at that. Not many had seen ghosts before.

Professor McGonagall came back and ushered them into the great hall. Everyone looked around in awe and wonder. It was better than books described it. And no one really trusted the word of their parents if they had gone.

"I didn't think that there was a hole in the ceiling," James said.

"There isn't," Draco said. "It's enchanted. But don't ask too many more questions about it or we won't be able to keep Hermione quiet."

James thought that was silly. Why would anyone want to keep her quiet when she obviously had the answers. He knew right then and there that he wanted to sit with her so that she could explain the enchantment on the ceiling. But he didn't know where she was going to wind up.

He considered the possibilities. He didn't think that he was brave enough for Gryffindor, even if that was where his parents had been. And he did think that Hermione was going to wind up in either Ravenclaw or Slytherin.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when a crumbly old wizard's hat split its top from the brim and began to sing. He most certainly hadn't been expecting that.

When the song ended the sorting started. Professor McGonagall called out names alphabetically and put the hat on their heads after which a house was called out and the students walked over to their new house.

He didn't like the way the Gryffindor's seemed to boo when new students were sorted into Slytherin. Especially the two twin brothers with red hair over there.

Hermione and Draco both got sorted into Slytherin. As did Theo, Daphne and a few others that James hadn't met. He froze a moment when he heard his name.

"Potter, Harry," McGonagall called.

The entire hall fell silent. There had been a steady drum of silence as others were sorted, but that name drew all attention. Everyone wanted to see what the famous Harry Potter looked like and where he would go. Even if the Gryffindors were obviously confident that he would wind up in their house.

It seemed like the silence went on forever as James climbed up to the stool and let Professor McGonagall put the hat on his head. His sorting dragged on, mostly because everyone was so invested. It really only took a minute or two.

"Slytherin!"

The Slytherin table erupted in cheers that rivaled Gryffindor's. Most of the others had been expected. Crabbe and Goyle wouldn't have been as accepted anywhere else. And Pansy was Slytherin to the core. Even Hermione hadn't been much of a surprise. At least not to those who knew her.

But to get someone who had helped defeat the Dark Lord, that was incredible. Perhaps it might help dispel the idea that all Slytherins were dark wizards. Which they knew they weren't. But most people didn't seem to believe that.

"So, why'd you call yourself James?" Theo asked.

Draco rolled his eyes. One of the reasons he'd learnt to love the muggle world, apart from rugby, was the anonymity it could give. He wasn't always glad to be recognized as one of the most rich people in wizarding Britain. The muggles had no idea.

Hermione patted him on the arm, though curious as to why he'd pick James.

"It's my middle name," Harry/James said. "And it was my dad's name."

"I don't think calling yourself James Potter is going to do you any favours," Blaise said. "That was your dad's name."

"James Evans," he said. "My dad's first name, and my mum's last. And none of the fame."

"Well James," Blaise said, "do you want to sleep next to Theo, or me?"

James froze for a second. "What?"

"Do you want to sleep in the bed next to Theo's or mine?" Blaise asked again. "It's a perfectly normal question."

"I didn't know we were allowed to pick?" James said.

"Of course you do," Draco said. "I know Hogwarts is different from your home, but it can't be all that bad. You'll get used to the new bed soon enough."

James shook his head. There was a determined frown on his face.

"Look, if you want to sleep next to Vince or Greg we'll let you," Theo said. "But Vince snores something awful. I wouldn't recommend it if I were you."

Hermione snorted. "That's an understatement."

"You never had to sleep in the same room as him," Draco said.

Theo and Blaise groaned. Draco and Hermione could banter for hours. They had known that for years. But they hadn't expected it to have started so soon after being sorted. Even if they were glad that they were both in the same house.

"Last time he fell asleep in your library Astoria asked your mother where the thunder was coming from," Daphne said.

"Wasn't that the time he got a cold?" Draco said.

"Nope," Blaise said. "That was the month before."

"Also, not the point," Pansy added. "Vince snores like a lawnmower."

"What's a lawnmower?" Vincent whispered to Greg.

"Ask Hermione?"

"Hermione, what's a lawnmower?" Vincent asked.

Hermione sighed before trying to explain a lawnmower. She didn't have much success.

"It's a muggle grass cutting machine," James explained.

Hermione shot James a grateful look. She had tried to explain muggle technology to both Greg and Vincent many a time. She hadn't had much luck. Though evidently even Pansy could grasp the idea behind a lawnmower.

"They make really loud noises," Draco added.

"Okay." Vince shrugged and went back to eating.

"You won't have to worry about me not sleeping," James said. "Dudley did worse than that most days. He liked to jump on the stairs to wake me up."

"I beg your pardon, but how does jumping on the stairs wake anyone up? Unless they're really loud," Draco said.

Hermione's mind was whirling. She was just as confused as Draco. People didn't usually jump on stairs to wake someone up. It was highly ineffective if done on purpose. But strangely great when done on accident.

"Dudley isn't exactly quiet at anything," James mumbled. "And he was jumping right above my bed."

All the jaws dropped. "What?" was the consensuses at the table.

"I slept in the cupboard under the stairs," James mumbled.

Draco looked affronted. "Well, you aren't going back," he declared. "We have more than enough rooms for you to have your pick of at my house."

"He could come live with me," Theo interjected. "Sure, my house isn't as grand, but I still have a whole wing to myself. There's plenty of space."

"Or with me," Blaise said. "We travel a lot, so you'd have to deal with that. But it's not bad. Just ask Hermione."

James looked around at all the offers. He hardly knew these people. But he felt safe, secure, and protected. But more importantly, he felt wanted. He knew that the Dursleys weren't particularly fond of him and would have loved to get rid of him. But for some reason they hadn't.

"What does Hermione have to do with that?" he asked.

"I go to Greece every Christmas," Hermione said. "Though this year, we're considering staying here. At least for the ball."

"Which you could probably attend even if you went to Greece. We could just portkey you back," Theo said.

"I know it's possible," Hermione said. Her face was glum. "But my parents hate traveling like that. They say it's disconcerting."

"They aren't exactly wrong," Draco said. "And especially since you guys don't do it very often. But Father says that international portkeys are a pain to set up. So, it might be best if you left after the ball."

"Ya-ya isn't going to be happy about this," Hermione said. But secretly that was the outcome that she was hoping for.

"Ya-ya?" James asked.

"Her grandmother," Blaise explained. "They go visit her every winter. Evidently the summer is too hot."

"It's Greece," Hermione said. "You might like Italy all times of the year, but I don't. Also, my hair gets unmanageable."

James looked at Hermione's hair and barely stifled a laugh. It was incredibly curly and bushy. She'd obviously attempted some modicum of control because it was tightly braided. But it was threatening to pop out on her.

"And it doesn't in the winter?" Theo teased.

Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled softly. "It might, but it's not a burden when it's on my neck at that point."

They chatted and ate, eventually deciding that Theo would sleep next to James and that they would all give him plenty of time, at least a week, to decide what he wanted to do about the summer. There were too many options for him to make a decision after just receiving them. And he didn't know who he was going to get along with.

When everyone was stuffed Dumbledore stood up. He gave a speech about what was expected. And reminded them of certain dangers.

"I wonder what he's hiding?" Draco said to Hermione once they were being led to their dormitories.

"It was so obvious. And who do you think will figure out what it is first?"

"I think Gemma might already know," Draco said.

They both looked at the prefect. Gemma was probably one of the most cunning people they had met. But they admittedly didn't know the prefects from the other houses. Maybe someone else had an idea.

"So," Hermione mused. "How long should we wait before we bring it up?"

"Probably a month."

"A month before what?" Theo asked.

Hermione gave Draco a look. They knew that if they shared it with Theo and Blaise it would get to Daphne in a week. And then it might be a fortnight before Pansy managed to wheedle it out of her. But it would happen. And then the rest of the house would know.

"Before we can discuss grades," Hermione said.

"Oh great," Theo muttered, "more competition."

* * *

A/N: so to those of you who requested longer chapters, they do take longer to write. I am working on it. And I've been writing other stories as well so bear with me. I'm busy. Very much so. Had doctor's appointments. It turns out I've got some sort of inflammatory disease that is currently targeting my eyes. Hopefully with the steroid eye drops we can keep this in check. Feeling blind isn't much fun. But I am learning braille. So it's less boring. Thanks for all your kind comments. I'm just a little slow.


	18. Chapter 18

The first day of classes was interesting for everyone. Hermione could barely handle her excitement as they ate breakfast and Draco pulled her back to sitting more than once.

"Does she do that often?" James asked. He would have been excited, but he was obviously not a morning person.

Draco nodded. He studied James's hair. It was sticking up in places and flat in others. But Draco had seen James run a comb through it. He'd have to find some way of getting James to try some gel, or something.

"You should have seen her the past week," Blaise said. "She couldn't calm down."

"Or the week before she started primary school," Theo said. "That was a mess."

Hermione snorted. "I started primary school the second year we knew each other. You can't honestly remember that far back."

"I remember the first time you were on a broom," Draco said.

"That was different," Hermione snipped.

"What class do we have first?" James asked. He wanted the bantering to stop. It was too early in the morning for him to keep up with it.

"Herbology with the Hufflepuffs," Theo said.

James took another bite of bacon and nodded. He didn't really care. They were all going as a class to each lesson. He wasn't likely to get lost.

"We'll get to see Neville again," Hermione said. "Oh, I hope he found his toad."

"I think someone said that Hagrid found it," Daphne said.

"Oh great," Pansy griped, "someone found Longbottom's toad."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "No one asked you Pansy."

"Someone ought to ask my opinion every once in a while," the older girl sniffed.

Hermione rolled her eyes and kept her mouth shut. She'd been enough arguments with Pansy over the years to know that it wouldn't end well. And that was something she didn't want on the first day of school.

"Don't worry Pans," Theo said. "We'll make sure we do if it's really important."

James got the sense that if they did ask, which might not happen, her opinion would be discarded fairly quickly. He also got the impression that Pansy wasn't very likeable. So, it made sense that they wouldn't count her opinion in as much.

"And Pans," Daphne added, "you've been around Hermione as long as the rest of us. I don't doubt that you know just as well as the rest of us, save possibly Draco, what her reaction might have been."

Pansy shot Daphne a glare so violently that James thought the phrase glaring daggers might have been appropriate. Hermione looked like she hadn't noticed. And from how they had all seemed to know each other for many years, she might not have.

"When do we have to leave?" James asked.

"If we leave less than ten minutes from now we'll be beyond early," Draco said. It was directed more at Hermione than anyone else.

"And if we leave more than fifteen minutes from now you can't guarantee that we won't be late," Hermione countered.

"So, we'll leave in twelve minutes," Daphne said. "Not so early that we'll be mocked. But not late enough that we run the risk of missing the first few minutes of class."

"Sounds reasonable," James said. A murmur of assent rippled through the rest of the group.

They finished up breakfast quietly. Most everyone was somewhat excited, if only because they would be able to learn something from someone who wasn't a tutor. And Hermione's excitement was contagious.

On the way to the greenhouses they met up with quite a few of the Hufflepuffs. Neville was among them.

"Hey there," Hermione said.

"Hi," Neville said. He was still clearly shy. "You're Hermione, right?"

"That's me," she said with a smile. "You met Draco yesterday." She gestured over at the blond.

Neville nodded. "He was more helpful than I anticipated. Gran said that Malfoys were to be avoided."

Hermione looked over at Draco. An appraising expression came over her face. "He might use too much gel when playing quidditch, but that's mostly to keep it out of his eyes. Other than that, I don't think you have much to worry about."

"I do not use that much hair gel," Draco said.

"She said when you play quidditch," Theo said. "Which you do."

"Not that any of us mind it," Blaise added. "Apart from the fact that you probably don't need to see in order to play. But that's beside the point."

"What exactly is the point?" Draco asked slightly miffed.

"That you like to see me when we play quidditch," Hermione said. "And no one blames you for that. Even if Theo and Blaise want to see if we can play blindfolded."

"Isn't that dangerous," James asked.

He didn't know much about quidditch. He had managed to gather through the conversations that it was played on broomsticks. And from everything he'd heard, it sounded like a dangerous enough sport when one could see.

"Not when you're Draco Malfoy," Theo said. "He knows where everything is. And he doesn't need to see Hermione to know when she's thrown the quaffle at him."

"We don't always play chasers," Draco said. "We can play every position."

"Just how many of those are there?" James asked.

"Seven players on each team. But only four positions," Theo said. "Three chasers, two beaters, a keeper and a seeker."

"You guys are going to have to explain this game to me later," James said. They'd reached the greenhouses and wasn't anxious to speak when a teacher was talking. He'd gotten yelled at for that more than a few times in the past.

Herbology went well for the first lesson. They didn't do much. There were a few introductions and basic safety rules explained. Which seemed fair since quite a number of things could kill them.

The next few classes were similar. It turned out that there was a lot of danger in being magical. If you didn't do things exactly right you were liable to take someone's head off. Or cause a minor explosion. Seamus Finnigan, a Gryffindor had managed quite a few instances of explosions.

Hermione had taken notes on all of the rules of each subject. She even did history of magic when that class came around on Wednesday morning. None of the other students did. Professor Binns seemed the least likely to have any rules.

He did. He started straight into a lecture, and most everyone found themselves sleeping within the block. Lunch couldn't come fast enough.

They then had the afternoon open, only because they had to be up far too late for astronomy. It turned out to be rather fascinating. And everyone enjoyed the lesson. If only because they got to be awake far later than they normally would have been otherwise.

They all slept in a little the next morning. Class didn't start until eleven that morning, so even Hermione used the time to rest. Though she was up significantly earlier than everyone else.

They made it through defense against the dark arts and transfiguration without too much trouble. And James made a mental note to study with Hermione as much as he possibly could. She seemed to be doing the best, even if she did sometimes go off on some tangent.

Friday started earlier than James, or any of the boys, would have liked. Draco seemed to be doing the best in terms of keeping to a schedule. But they all figured that was due to some sort of competition that he had going on with Hermione.

"Potions today," James said.

Daphne and Pansy gave a small shudder at the thought of it. They didn't like potions. Never had. And the fact that they were going to attend a class where Professor Snape was teaching didn't exactly leave a pleasant taste in their mouths.

"Don't remind me," Theo said.

"What's wrong with potions?" James asked.

Draco shrugged. "Nothing as far as I can tell."

"They're afraid of Professor Snape," Hermione said. "He's really not that scary unless you blow up a cauldron of stuff. Then he gets very mad."

James looked back at his breakfast nervously. He didn't think he was as prepared for this class as he was for the others. Though he hadn't really been prepared for any of them. But none of his friends had let him fail spectacularly yet.

"How do you think I'll do?" he asked Hermione.

"Better than some, worse than others. Especially since we're going to be with the Gryffindors," Hermione said.

"What's wrong with the Gryffindors?" Theo asked. "Aside from their quidditch team."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You boys only think about quidditch. Aside from the fact that we're not able to play first year."

"Which is totally unfair," Draco said. "You know we'd be better than who they've got on the team now."

Hermione gently smacked Draco on the ear. "And you know that we don't have the skills to balance our homework and quidditch at the same time," she said. "Next year."

"Maybe you could teach me the rules in that time," James said. "Then I can cheer for you and understand what's going on."

"Better," Draco said. "We'll teach you to play."

"You're small enough I think you'd make a good seeker," Blaise said. "Then we'd almost have enough players to form a full team."

Hermione snorted. "We've got a full year to form the team. And school comes first. If your grades slip you won't be allowed to play. So, make sure you don't pull a Finnigan in potions."

They all frowned. No one wanted to make anything explode. It was bad enough when it was transfiguration and all that happened was that the matchstick combusted. It would likely be much worse when it was a potion.

What felt all too soon to everyone save Draco and Hermione, breakfast was over and they were headed down to the dungeons for potions. James felt a twinge of fear in his stomach. He just had to get through the lesson and then he'd have the afternoon off. Mostly for homework.

Snape swooped in and started the lesson off by reading the roll. He paused when he got to "Harry Potter, our new _celebrity._ " He elongated the last word, drawing it out with disgust.

"Actually sir," James said, "I'd like to go by James Evans if that's alright."

Snape's dark eyes warmed by a few degrees. He stared down at James for a moment. "If that's what you wish Mr. Evans," he said gruffly.

The roll continued with few other disturbances. The Gryffindors looked at Snape like he was evil. But he ignored them.

"We're here to learn about the subtle, dangerous, art of potion making," he said to his audience. "There won't be much wand waving in this class, so expect some of you will likely be bored. Do not confuse potions with a lack of magic.

"I can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, and stopper death if you aren't the usual bunch of dunderheads that I have to teach."

He paused for a moment, looking over at Draco and Hermione. They'd had lessons with him, very simple stuff, for a few years. They should be ready for whatever he dished at them. And then there was Harry. No. Not Harry. James Evans.

Snape mulled that over in his mind for a moment. The great Harry Potter was rejecting his fame in favour of anonymity. It felt so different from what James Potter would have done.

And when Snape looked at the boy, he looked different than he had expected. Sure, the boy had Lilly's eyes. And he had his father's colouring. But his build and the gestures he made were so reminiscent of his mother. The nose was definitely Lilly's. As were his hands.

"Can anyone tell me what I would get if I added, in the proper amounts, powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Snape paused for just a moment. "Evans? Can you tell me?"

James shook his head. "No sir," he said softly.

"Could you perhaps tell me where one might find a bezoar?"

James looked down at his hands. He felt incredibly silly. "No sir."

"Do you happen to know the difference, Evans, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Snape asked with a sigh.

"No sir," James said once again.

"I would advise all of you to read your books before next class," Snape said. "Malfoy, what does one get when powdered root of asphodel is added to an infusion of wormwood?"

"You get a sleeping potion known as the draught of the living death," Draco said.

"And Miss Granger, where does one find a bezoar?"

"From the stomach of a goat," Hermione answered.

"And Miss Parkinson, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane"

"I have no idea," Pansy said.

"I advise that all of you look over your books before next class. We'll only have one each week, but don't expect that it will make things easier," Snape said. "This is a class where you must be prepared."

He paired them up and started them on a simple cure for boils. It was one of the simplest things that anyone learnt to make. It was also something that wasn't particularly horrible if they messed up.

There were quite a few problems as the students worked on their potions. Daphne and Pansy had trouble crushing the snake fangs. Fey Dunbar and the other Gryffindor girl couldn't seem to get the right weight of nettles.

Snape had to admit that some of the lessons he had given to Draco and Hermione were paying off. They didn't seem to be having much, if any, trouble with the potion. And they worked together fabulously. As if they could almost read each other's mind.

He was just about to praise them when a loud hiss sounded quickly followed by a cloud of green smoke filling the room. Professor Snape snapped his head around and surveyed the scene.

Somehow, Seamus Finnigan had managed to melt his cauldron into a twisted hissing mess. The potion he and Dean Thomas had been working on was quickly flowing in a sickly green mess across the room.

In just moments the rest of the class was standing on stools to keep themselves out of the mess. Seamus, who's face looked like something had exploded in it again, had gotten the brunt of it. Angry red boils sprang to life all where the potion had touched him.

"Idiot boy," Snape grumbled. He vanished the mess with a flick of his wand. "Take him up to the hospital wing," he told Dean and Ron.

"This is probably a good idea to explain what happens when you add porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the flame. There will be points take off for this, but that will be once Mr. Finnigan gets back from the hospital wing and I can explain what he did wrong."

Draco and Hermione gulped. They knew the tone of voice that Snape was using wasn't one he used when he was pleased. Seamus was in for a world of hurt later. And they were very glad that he wasn't in their house.

"So glad that's over," James breathed when they were done with potions.

"Me too," Theo said. "I thought Snape was going to bite your head off during roll call."

"I did too," James said. "Don't know why."

"Might have something to do with your parents," Draco said. "Father says that they were in the same year as Professor Snape."

"Maybe," James said. "Maybe."

* * *

A/N: So this is the longest chapter I've written for this story. And definitely one of the longer chapters I've ever posted. Yes, Harry is going to go by James for the rest of it. Will perhaps a reminder because people forget that he likes to go by that. Hope you guys enjoy it. This week will likely be a little slow on any updates because it's my sister's wedding on Wednesday and I'm a bridesmaid.


	19. Chapter 19

Hermione found that lessons were going by quicker than she had anticipated. And much slower than she wanted. All at the same time. And all too soon, far sooner than she would have planned, they were faced with the one class they had all been anxious for. Flying.

The only real trouble with the class was that they were scheduled with the Gryffindors. No one wanted to fly with Seamus Finnigan. And Ron Weasley wasn't much better as an option.

"It's not that we don't like him," Blaise said even though it was clearly a lie. "It's just that he…"

"Is a filthy liar," Pansy spat. "As if anyone could almost hit a hang glider on one of the Weasley's brooms."

Hermione knew that was likely true. She'd seen how much Ron Weasley struggled with simple spells while using his brother's old wand. There was no doubt in her mind that the brooms they had were in even worse condition.

"And we don't like him," Draco said. "He seems to think that we have to adhere to the same friendships our parents did. Which puts him at odds with us."

"What's wrong with his parents?" James asked. He couldn't imagine why someone might teach their children to not be friends with anyone else. Unless the Weasleys thought that the Malfoys were freaks. But that couldn't be the case.

"That's something for another day," Pansy said. "You'll figure it out soon enough."

James thought for just a moment. He figured that it had something to do with them being in Slytherin. There seemed to be quite a bit of animosity towards the Slytherins, particularly from the Gryffindors, which stemmed from more than just house rivalry.

He shook his head. He'd deal with that later. For the moment he needed to focus on not dying.

The day soon came where they were to start flying lessons. They all met outside with the Gryffindors near the quidditch pitch. Twenty broomsticks were lying in two neat lines on the ground. They looked even worse than anyone had imagined.

The Slytherins stood next to the broom nervously. Hermione felt her anxiety building. She loved flying. But she'd never flown on a broom she didn't trust. And these ones, she couldn't trust. They had sticks poking out of the back and some of them had gouges on the handles.

"What are you waiting for?" Madam Hooch barked. She had short gray hair and yellow eyes. Hermione thought she looked quite like a hawk.

"Pick a broomstick."

Hermione picked one that didn't look quite as clawed. But it was still quite old. Surely Hogwarts had the funds to get the brooms replaced once they no longer functioned as well.

"Now sick your right hand over the broom and say up."

Nearly everyone yelled "UP!"

James' broom shot straight up into his hand. Draco's did as well. Hermione's just rolled over lazily, definitely sensing that she didn't trust it. And Dean Thomas' didn't even do that much. There was certainly a quality to his voice that suggested that he would much rather keep both feet firmly on the ground.

After a few minutes Madame Hooch had those that still hadn't managed to order their brooms up pick them up. She then walked around correcting grips.

"Not that way," she told Ron Weasley. "If you do that, you'll slide off the back end of the broom."

"Told you," Pansy said.

She congratulated Hermione on her grip and acknowledged Draco with hardly so much as a nod. Draco ruffled his feathers a little but was quickly reminded that he was supposed to have been flying for quite some time. Hermione was not.

"Just wait till she sees what you can do," Blaise told him.

They were almost ready to kick off from the ground when Ron took off. He was clearly eager to show that he knew something about flying. After all, his brother Charlie hadn't been captain of the quidditch team for nothing. But he fell off the end of his broom just as Madam Hooch had predicted.

"No one move until I get him to the hospital wing," she said.

Once she was out of sight about half of the Slytherin class nearly toppled over. They were laughing so hard that it was difficult to disguise. Even James, Hermione, and Draco were finding it difficult to stay upright.

"Leave him alone," Parvati Patil said.

"Surely you can't like him that much, Parvati?" Pansy asked. "He comes across as annoying to us. And we spend less time with him than you do."

Parvati looked like she might be ready to cry or scream. She didn't like Ron. Most of the Gryffindors didn't like him. But they couldn't do much about it besides put up with him. Unless Ron did something to get himself expelled, they were going to be together for the next seven years.

"Look, we'll just wait until Madame Hooch gets back and then go back to the lesson," Hermione said. She was trying to placate everyone.

The Gryffindors rolled their eyes, but as it was one of their own that had gotten themselves hurt, they didn't have much room to talk. They sat down on the ground and the Slytherins did the same. There wasn't much conversation between the two groups.

Eventually Madame Hooch returned. She had them practice hovering for a few seconds before settling back down onto the ground. Practically all the Slytherins were getting frustrated. Even James, who had never flown before, was finding himself bored with the exercise.

"Can we do something a bit more interesting?" Hermione asked. "I think even Tracey would like that."

Tracey Davis was probably the one with the least experience flying. She was also muggleborn but hadn't had the advantage of having run into purebloods early in her life. But she had managed to hover as well as the rest of them.

Madame Hooch heaved a heavy sigh. "Alright then. But no showing off." She directed that comment to Draco and Hermione.

They shared a look. They were planning on showing off. But it couldn't really be showing off if everyone else was bored too.

"I want you to form into groups of three. Each group should contain at least one person who has never been on a broom before."

There was a groan from Theo and Blaise. They knew they would never be able to split Draco and Hermione up. But, they had hoped that they might be able to take Daphne. Now they were going to be stuck with someone who hadn't ever ridden a broom. Which looked like it was going to have to be either Tracey or one of the Gryffindors.

"James," Hermione said sweetly, "would you like to be part of our group?"

"With you and Draco?" James asked.

"Of course," Hermione said. "We need to see if you've got the skills to be a chaser. We're trying to scope out the future quidditch team."

"And Blaise and Theo?" James asked. He'd heard them talking about trying out for the team the next year as well. But James was pretty sure that Hermione had been fairly insistent that she wasn't.

"Better as beaters," Draco said. "Besides, we shouldn't split them up."

James looked from Hermione to Draco confused. "Split?"

Hermione barely refrained from rolling her eyes. "You know. Break apart."

"I know what split means," James said. "What I don't know is why you don't want to split them up? Surely you've done so before."

Hermione and Draco glanced at each other. They had split Theo and Blaise up many times. But they knew their playing strengths and weaknesses. Besides, Madame Hooch had told them to pick someone who hadn't flown before.

"We've done that," Draco said. "And we've been split up. It didn't end particularly well."

"For you," Hermione added. "But what do you say?"

James frowned for a moment and paused. It took him about two seconds to decide that those two were probably the best flyers in the class. And he could certainly do worse than that. "Fair enough."

They all separated into groups and started throwing a ball between them. Madame Hooch had told them not to show off, but when Draco or Hermione tossed the ball to each other they did far more complicated throws than James would have thought necessary.

But he found himself getting a little bored with the exercise he started raising up and down slightly on the broom as they tossed it back and forth.

Hermione and Draco grinned. They started tossing the ball to James with some of the throws they had been using. And they clearly started showing off.

They started turning the brooms as they threw the ball. They shot to spots that were away from each other so they had to reach out and test their balance. And they were good. Really good.

James found one particular throw where he had to reach out further than he had before to grab the ball. But the throw was strong and it knocked him to the side. He grabbed the broom with one hand and rolled with it all while keeping a strong hold on the ball.

"Mr. Malfoy! Miss Granger!" Madame Hooch barked. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"We weren't showing off," Hermione said. "Not really."

For them they hadn't been. They hadn't even tried to knock each other, or James, off their brooms. They were just trying to make the exercise more interesting. It was something they had been able to do since they were much younger.

"You nearly knocked young Mr. Potter here off his broom."

"Mr. Evans," James corrected.

"What is going on here," Professor Snape asked.

Some of the students shrank back a little. Most of them were Gryffindors.

"Your students keep trying to pull stunts," Madame Hooch snapped at him. "Unfortunately, no one was hurt so I can't take points off."

Draco and Hermione looked at each other. That certainly wasn't what any other teacher had ever said. They could, and had, taken points off for general misbehaving. Maybe Madame Hooch was just strange.

"Now," Snape said, "you could take points off if you wanted."

"That's not the way that flying has ever been conducted and you know it. The point is to encourage them, not make them want to drop out the minute they can," Madame Hooch said.

"No one said anything about making them drop out," Snape said. "Evans, Granger, Malfoy, if you would follow me please."

They followed after the potion's professor silently. He wasn't one that they really considered even whispering behind. Mostly because they had heard all the stories that the older students told. And Draco's parents had warned him and Hermione to be on their best behaviour around him.

They finally reached one of the classrooms. Snape stepped inside.

"He didn't?" Hermione said.

"He did," Draco said. He could hardly contain his excitement.

"Who's Flint?" James asked.

"Only the quidditch captain for Slytherin," Hermione said. She breathed heavily. "He didn't."

"You can't honestly expect me to..."

"I can and I will Master Flint," Snape said. That was the end of that argument. Whatever it was.

Flint scowled, his uneven teeth jutting out even more pronouncedly over his bottom lip. "What are you looking at firsties?" he asked.

"And Master Flint, be nice." With that Snape just walked away.

Flint grumbled a bit before turning to the three first years. "I'm not happy about this, so you can stop looking so eager Malfoy."

Draco frowned a bit. He hadn't thought he'd looked that eager.

"Now we'll be starting as soon as I can get permission. Hopefully Dumbledore won't quelch this. But I have a feeling that if Potter's on our side we can't loose."

"Evans," James mumbled.

"Don't worry," Hermione whispered. "It'll get better."

"For now, don't say anything. I still have to get permission. But if I can't convince Dumbledore, Malfoy how quickly do you think your father could get the board of governors to change some rules?" Flint asked.

"Depends on what you want to do," Draco said.

"And just how unfair we can spin it that Dumbledore's being," Hermione added.

"I like you," Flint said. "Too bad you're a firstie."

"And one who's not supposed to be here yet," James snickered.

Hermione elbowed him in the side. "I'm not that much younger than you."

"Young enough you had to get special permission to come," Draco teased.

Hermione rolled her eyes. She couldn't get that mad about something that was true. Besides, she wasn't sure how much she was allowed to let people know. She couldn't just let people know she was betrothed to Draco.

"Knowing when to control your temper. You've got real potential," Flint mused. "You might be able to make it to head girl if you can survive six years without killing these two. But I think we might be able to tire them out so they don't make life too difficult."

James and Draco shared a worried look at the gleam that twinkled in Hermione's eyes. It was frightening. And there wasn't much, if anything, they could do.

* * *

A/N: I got this chapter done. Thank goodness. Hope you guys like it.


	20. Chapter 20

"Are you guys in trouble?" Pansy asked later. Her attention lingered on Draco far more than Hermione would have liked.

"No," James said. "We had to talk to Flint though. He's real nice."

Hermione and Draco regarded him. His use of sarcasm was surprisingly subtle. They only noticed it because they knew exactly how James felt about Marcus Flint. But they were all excited for the possibility that he offered.

They did homework and went to bed but all of them had difficulty sleeping. The three were too wound up to sleep well. When they awoke the next morning, they all felt horrible.

Hermione looked the most put together. Her hair was plaited and her uniform pressed. Dark circles under her eyes betrayed her exhaustion but there wasn't much that she could do about that. Her parents didn't allow her to have cosmetics.

Draco looked like he had at least combed his hair, but it was falling in his eyes and his collar was sticking up. But he looked better than James who looked like he hadn't brushed his hair in weeks and had put his shirt on inside out. Somehow.

They were all about to sit down to breakfast when Professor Snape walked up to them.

"Dumbledore has allowed it, but he hasn't allowed full possession of the items. They will remain in my office aside from when Flint requires. You're to stay after potions today to pick out models."

They sat down and started to eat. After the first cup of tea, Hermione started to perk up a bit. She always had at least one cup. By the end of the second, which she felt she needed that morning, Ron Weasley walked over.

"Guess I heard wrong," he said.

"What did you hear?" Pansy asked. She'd arrived at the table a little after the trio and looked far more rested.

"That someone had gotten expelled. Or at least points taken away," Ron said. "The hourglasses don't say anything."

"What gossip are you listening to?" Draco asked. "You know that Gryffindors speculate too much. You're one of them."

"We didn't get in trouble," James added. "Professor Snape just wanted us to be more careful and not show off in class."

"No one asked you Potter," Ron said.

"It's Evans," James complained.

"Technically you did when you spoke generally," Hermione retorted.

"Enough of this chit-chat. If you're so inclined to take me on you'll meet me in the trophy room at midnight."

He strode off and the entire Slytherin table watched him go, somewhat aghast.

"We're not going, are we?" James asked.

"Of course we're not going," Hermione said. "We're Slytherins. We're not supposed to break the rules that brashly for some stupid challenge. After all, everyone watched him fall off his broom."

"He just wants us to get hurt with some stupid spell he doesn't know how to do properly," Draco added.

Content that they weren't going to get themselves into too much trouble, James tucked back into his breakfast. Before long they were all satisfied and ready to head to their first class of the day.

They made it through everything without running into too much trouble. Vincent and Greg got a few points taken off for talking, but otherwise the day was mostly unremarkable. Until potions.

Somehow Finnigan managed to blow up his potion. Ronald Weasley got caught trying to sabotage Hermione's potion. Which turned out poorly for him. He got half a cup of unfinished potion poured over his head and sent to the hospital wing without much more than a cursory snip from Snape.

Then they were finally done and the three friends stayed behind. Blaise and Theo looked at them a little confused but were quickly assured that there wasn't trouble. They just had some things that needed to be taken care of.

"I do admire your dedication to making sure that Weasley knows to respect your boundaries Miss Granger, but I will have to ask you to be more discrete in the future," Snape said.

"Yes Professor," Hermione said.

She figured that if Ron was going to try to make her potion explode in her face, she might as well spill some of the solution on him. It seemed only fair. Although she did know how to correct adding a few extra beetle eyes.

"Good. Now to the matter at hand," Snape said. "What sort of models of brooms do you think would be good?"

"Anything other than the school brooms," Hermione said immediately.

"We'll want brooms of the same quality," James mused. "We wouldn't want any of us to outfly each other."

"And we won't want to outfly our brooms," Draco added.

That was a concern he and Hermione had discussed. Lucius Malfoy had mentioned that he wasn't particularly inclined to purchase a new broom each year just to find out that Draco and Hermione had advanced onto a higher level of talent.

"What would you suggest?" James asked.

Snape pondered for a moment taking in the three youngsters. He knew that they would all need good brooms. And he knew that money wasn't exactly a problem they had to consider.

"I would recommend the nimbus 2000," Snape said.

"That's the newest broom," Draco exclaimed.

"Yes Master Malfoy. And I hope you two don't outfly it too soon." He looked at Hermione and Draco. "They haven't come up with a better model yet."

Draco looked to Hermione and smirked while she rolled her eyes. He wasn't too likely to outfly it too soon between lessons and rugby practice over the holidays. She was slightly more likely to outfly it than he was.

With that business finished, the three headed back to their common room. Hermione had a letter she wanted to write, and all three of them had homework they wanted to finish.

"Are you seriously going to expect me not to believe that you three are in some sort of trouble?" Pansy demanded when they got there.

"We didn't," Hermione sighed.

"As if I'm going to believe you Granger," Pansy snipped. "You didn't even tell us that you were almost a full year older than Draco."

"She's not," James said.

"What do you know Potter?" Pansy sneered.

"It's Evans!"

As James heaved out his exasperation, two wands found themselves right next to Pansy's neck. She blinked.

"I would apologize if I were you," Hermione said in a calm tone. It sent shivers down everyone's spine.

"Quickly," Draco said.

"Sorry Evans," Pansy mumbled.

"Like you mean it," Hermione said. Her wand jabbed Pansy in the neck.

"I'm sorry James," Pansy said a little louder. She didn't sound that apologetic, but the wands were pulled back and put away.

"Firsties," Gemma Farley, one of the prefects, said with a warning in her voice. "What is the first rule we told you?"

"Don't point a wand at someone you don't intend to hurt," Hermione repeated.

"And what do you call that?" Gemma asked.

"Intent to hurt," Draco said."We would do it."

Gemma looked from Hermione to Draco. They both wore expressions that didn't indicate that they would have cast a jinx in a second had Pansy not complied. It frightened her and awed her at the same time.

"Alright then," Gemma said. She walked off.

"Don't punish them too harshly Gemma," Marcus said as she walked past."I need my star players to not lose too many points. Besides, it's good that they've got some fight."

"Your what?"

"Don't say that so loudly. They're my secret weapon."


End file.
